Craig, I can’t take umbrage with your philosophy that leads such as 6-0 and 8-1 are anything but bulletproof. Occasionally a manager who plays as if his team’s lead is insurmountable (doing things like failing to hold opposing runners on base, or keeping his own runners from advancing two bases on a single) will pay for his strategy with a loss.

One great thing about baseball’s Code is that there are legitimate arguments to be made about it, pro and con. You just touched on the con. Without getting into too many specifics, here is a brief defense of the other side.

Baseball’s leisurely pace offers copious time for reflection between plays. This is part of its beauty. It also allows players to send messages through their actions. A stolen base doesn’t have to mean anything beyond a runner advancing, but it can; look no further than Nyjer Morgan’s two steals against the Marlins last year, which precipitated a brawl. Similar sentiments can be expressed through inside fastballs, hard tags and home run trots.

Because so many messages can be sent through actions on a diamond, the concept of respect—for one’s opponent, for one’s teammates and for the game itself—is paramount. With the understanding that there is plenty of gray area about which to argue, enforcement of the unwritten rules almost inevitably keeps players in line.

A baseball version of LeBron James, for example, could never get away with going back to Cleveland and pulling his chalk-in-the-air routine; opposing pitchers wouldn’t allow it to happen more than once. This seems to fall into what you label “professional courtesy,” and it’s entirely valid.

Having devoted an undue amount of attention to the topic over recent years, however, I’d take things a step further and posit that virtually every section of the Code can be labeled “professional courtesy.” Nobody likes to be shown up during a blowout, partly because they know that the following day the score can go lopsided in the opposite direction. We can argue about what constitutes a blowout and when in the game to pay attention to it, but the notion of on-field courtesy is unassailable, at least to those who play the game.

That’s the way of baseball, one thing that makes it different—and better—than any other sport.

Thanks for the great ongoing coverage.

Here, you compare.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/20110424_Hall_of_Famer_still_willing_to_pay_his_dues.html

keep the volume low, crappy ads.

http://thebaseballcodes.com/2011/04/20/brewers-late-baserunning-renews-questions-about-how-much-is-too-much/

“No fair beating teams that haven’t won a World Series since the Van Buren administration.”

“No fair beating teams with a hairless manager.”

“No fair beating home teams in stadiums that were built as part of reconstruction after the Civil War.”

If this is Quade’s attitude now, what will he be whining about in August when the Cubs are 13 games out?