Incredible piece on institutional inertia. The unspoken understanding between umpires and Perry for 20 years shows how enforcement norms can diverge from actual rules. Phillips basically had to break an informal social contract to enforce the written one. Had a similar dynamic in compliance work where everyoneknew the workaround but formalizing it would've killed the whole flow.
When rules are enforced by people, there's always some drift, isn't there? Baseball is a great laboratory to see how that can happen. Perry's earlier complaints that he "had as much time in the majors" as Carl Yastrzemski and deserved some leniency on his pitch location shows another cultural expectation that existed outside the rules and put pressure on them.
I'm grateful for that feedback, John! Telling these stories and keeping them going is my mission (though I will be happy to accept a Pulitzer). Thank you for reading and being a part of it.
Somewhat of a footnote, Perry was with the Royals when the Pine Tar Game happened, and of course Perry helped smuggle the offending bat back to the locker room, trying to hide it from the umpires (and the AL office). I'm not sure if Perry ever took back his comments about MacPhail after the Royals' protest was upheld...
I'm guessing he did not. It was all downhill after "bleeping weak human" the year before. From what I have learned Lee MacPhail seems to have been a remarkably decent man for his industry. This surely made he and Gaylord natural adversaries. Thanks for this great footnote, Darin!
Incredible piece on institutional inertia. The unspoken understanding between umpires and Perry for 20 years shows how enforcement norms can diverge from actual rules. Phillips basically had to break an informal social contract to enforce the written one. Had a similar dynamic in compliance work where everyoneknew the workaround but formalizing it would've killed the whole flow.
When rules are enforced by people, there's always some drift, isn't there? Baseball is a great laboratory to see how that can happen. Perry's earlier complaints that he "had as much time in the majors" as Carl Yastrzemski and deserved some leniency on his pitch location shows another cultural expectation that existed outside the rules and put pressure on them.
Thank you
I just laughed and giggled while reading this. Well done, you should win a Pulitzer!
What makes baseball different than other sports is the stories. You tell them well.
I'm grateful for that feedback, John! Telling these stories and keeping them going is my mission (though I will be happy to accept a Pulitzer). Thank you for reading and being a part of it.
A wonderful article. Thank you, Paul.
Somewhat of a footnote, Perry was with the Royals when the Pine Tar Game happened, and of course Perry helped smuggle the offending bat back to the locker room, trying to hide it from the umpires (and the AL office). I'm not sure if Perry ever took back his comments about MacPhail after the Royals' protest was upheld...
I'm guessing he did not. It was all downhill after "bleeping weak human" the year before. From what I have learned Lee MacPhail seems to have been a remarkably decent man for his industry. This surely made he and Gaylord natural adversaries. Thanks for this great footnote, Darin!