It’s one thing to know how to score a game, and it’s another to be a published baseball historian. Giants official scorer Michael Duca has the book on the codes of the game as well as the rules.
No barrel rolls into 2nd. No spiking! No Digging –in. No Home Run Swings—while game is in your favor by a fair amount *depending on bullpen – What happens in the locker room stays in there! No watching home runs… flipping of the bat = Brush back!
Just some of the unwritten rules of America’s pastime collected by Duca and Jason Turbow in “The Baseball Codes,” chronicling beanballs, sign stealing and bench clearing brawls among other tales of baseball etiquette breached.
This is easily one of my favorite sports books of the year. I would say it’s one of my favorite books of the year, but I only read sports books, so that would be redundant.
Turbow and Duca do an excellent job at letting the stories unfold – the best of which, was told by the legendary Buck O’Neil to cap Chapter 21.
This should be mandatory reading for MLB rookies and minor league prospects.
In the above video clip, Duca takes us inside the press box to explain the job of keeping tabs on baseball history, pitch by pitch.
