Nobody’s Playing Chin Music Anymore : Protocol: The mellowing of baseball brings about an etiquette not seen in the past.

“Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It’s no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It’s . . . a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest.”

--Ty Cobb, My Life in Baseball: The True Record

*

Dave Winfield picked himself up off of the ground and slapped the dirt off of his uniform. He stepped out of the batter’s box and eyeballed Chuck Crim, then pitching for the Angels.

No matter that, on his previous at-bat--with the Minnesota Twins comfortably leading, 6-1 in the sixth--Winfield had bunted for a single.

And no matter that, once he reached first, Winfield had quickly stolen second.

To Winfield, that was history. Although he had not been hit by Crim’s pitch, he made it clear that he did not appreciate being knocked down.

Once, according to baseball’s unwritten etiquette, a player never would have bunted--let alone steal a base--with a sizable lead. The rule of thumb: Don’t rub your opponents’ nose in it, it could come right back at you tomorrow.

And if you did bunt, you could expect to be hit with the baseball during your next at-bat.

So when Winfield stepped into the box in the eighth, Crim came inside with a fastball that dropped Winfield like an anchor.

And now, Winfield’s glare could have frozen water from 200 feet away. . . .

It was a perfect, politically correct, 1990s moment. Baseball has become nice. Don’t throw at hitters. Don’t throw too far inside to hitters--they won’t stand for it. Don’t go out of your way to take the infielder out at second on a routine double play. Avoid the collision at home if you can help it.

And Ty Cobb thought it was bad when they told him to quit sharpening his spikes.

Baseball today is a game Miss Manners could appreciate.

“Oh, you mean the corporate game?” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said sarcastically.

“It is more of a gentleman’s game, the way it’s played today,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said.

And the most noticeable change is what happens between the pitcher’s mound and home plate.

Call it what you will. Brushback pitch. Knockdown pitch. Purpose pitch. Chin music.

A large percentage of today’s hitters will not tolerate it; in the era of the million-dollar player, it’s considered a breach of ethics. And a large percentage of today’s pitchers don’t know how or when to throw it.

“I don’t know if it’s a combination of the players’ association, long-term contracts, money,” Rodgers said. “I think it’s a little bit of everything.

“In the old days, and I’m talking even before me (Rodgers’ major league career spanned from 1961 through 1969) and in my early days, everybody expected to be knocked down. I knew pitchers who, if you took a good swing at them, they’d knock you on your (butt). You had few fights then because it was a sign of respect. There were no helmets, and nobody would dive in at the ball.

“Now, hitters take it like you’re trying to get them out of the lineup or hurt them. Hitters are more at fault.

“(Former Dodger pitcher Don) Drysdale used to knock Willie Mays on his (butt) every other pitch. Then Mays would get up and hit a line drive.”

Today, Baltimore’s Mike Mussina plunks Seattle’s Bill Haselman and Haselman is out to the mound quicker than you can say “Highlights at 11 tonight on SportsCenter.”

“It used to be a hitter’s attitude that when you got knocked on your (butt), you had arrived,” Rodgers continued. “It was like, ‘Hey, Early Wynn knocked me on my (butt). I’ve been accepted to the major league fraternity.’

“In the last couple of years, I saw one guy charge the mound on a curve and another on a hanging slider.

“That’s stupid. Any hitter who would charge the mound on an off-speed pitch, that’s stupid. I don’t care how frustrated you are, you’ve got to have some sense.”

Indeed, fights today aren’t necessarily always instigated by headhunting pitchers.

In many instances, earring-wearing, necklace-flashing, high-tops exhibiting batters want no part of anything that will make them look uncool. So if a baseball makes them get dirty, their mood turns sour.

And beanballs, forget beanballs. They’re out. Hey--it’s the 1990s. Help and understanding are in.

“The game has changed, but I think whatever changes you see in society, you see in baseball,” said Texas pitcher Nolan Ryan, who has employed the brushback pitch as well as anybody. “The approach to the game today is much more laid back. Everything that happens in this game, we’re just an extension of our society.”

The players’ association, formed in the early 1970s, first banded players together. And certainly, the big money to be made in today’s game has changed the rules further. It is no secret that players have become nomads, auction items going to the highest bidder.

One result is that players are more conscious than ever of staying healthy, because there is so much money available. Another is that the player you take out at second today could be your teammate next year. Or maybe he wore your double-knits last year.

Or, he and you share the same agent.

“You get to know guys more,” White Sox Manager Gene Lamont said. “Hell, you used to have to work in the winter. Now, guys go on vacation together.”

Said Angel pitcher Chuck Finley: “It’s almost like everybody knows everybody now. It’s almost like every town we go to, some guys have played with somebody on that team.”

In the 1960s, former St. Louis pitcher Bob Gibson would refuse even to talk to his National League teammates at the All-Star game because he knew he would have to pitch against them soon thereafter.

This season, the San Diego Padres have installed a rope behind the batting cage to cut down on fraternization with opponents during pregame batting practice.

“It’s a very close-knit, brother-in-law type of game today,” said Drysdale, whose rule of thumb on the mound was to hit two opposing batters for every Dodger batter who was hit by a pitch. “It’s all multiyear contracts, and many opponents have the same agents.

“Behind home plate, it’s like a family reunion. It’s unbelievable. Even managers and coaches have gotten into it.”

Hard-nosed baseball?

“It’s almost kind of boring at times,” Finley said. “In ’86 when I came up, I remember playing the Brewers and Rick Manning, somebody hit the ball, and Mark McLemore fielded it, and Manning just dropped him at second. Just dropped him.

“I saw a play on TV today in the Cubs’ game where a guy, (St. Louis’) Bernard Gilkey I think, just let the fielder tag him and throw to first for a double play. The announcers were even saying the guy should have cleaned his clock.”

Nowhere is the mellowing of baseball more noticeable than on the mound, where a combination of changing times and rules have combined to all but neuter pitchers.

Sal (The Barber) Maglie, who received his nickname because he used to give hitters such close shaves, might be lost if he toed the pitching rubber today.

“You don’t see hitters brushed back like you used to, and the biggest reason is the movement of players,” Piniella said. “There are not rivalries like there used to be.

“Secondly, I think, it’s because of aluminum bats. In high school and college, you can’t jam people with aluminum bats. Consequently, pitchers are pitching away. Then, all of a sudden they get up to the big leagues and they’re not as adroit at pitching inside. When you hit somebody, hitters know it’s intentional, and they charge the mound.

“You used to get knocked down two or three times a game, especially if you were established.

“Brushback pitches and knockdown pitches, it’s almost like the bunt. It’s a lost art.”

Said Drysdale: “What (pitchers) don’t realize is that you’ve got to work on it like any other pitch you throw. You’ve got to work on it during spring training.”

Because high school and college pitchers don’t work inside when hitters are wielding aluminum bats, hitters who reach the majors often have a different attitude about the inside pitch.

“We get so many athletes from colleges and universities, when they get to professional baseball they’re not used to (being pitched inside),” Angel coach Bobby Knoop said. “Consequently, it’s new and creates fear and anxiety.”

And in many cases what you get is a live-and-let-live attitude. You don’t hurt me, I won’t hurt you. We’re all in this together.

“Sacrifice flies, running, double steals, guys busting their (butts) down the line . . . small things you used to take for granted, things you see in old clips,” Finley said. “It’s almost like in some sort of way it’s a preventive game. The overall hustle, I think, has gone down.

Said Piniella: “There used to be less teams and more talent available in the minor leagues ready to take your spot. If you didn’t do those things, the manager would call you aside and say, ‘Son, you need to do this.’

“Now, with not as much talent in the minor leagues and with salaries the way they are, you don’t see it.”

Said Lamont: “Guys get to the big leagues quicker, and they haven’t worked on pitching inside as much, and maybe they’re a little wilder.”

In the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, guys such as Gibson, Drysdale, Wayne Simpson, Don Wilson and Tom Seaver all knew exactly how and when to throw a knockdown pitch.

Today, you have to look harder, and the names you come up with are certainly no surprise. Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Dwight Gooden, Bret Saberhagen, Finley . . . all will throw inside, and it’s no coincidence that they are some of the game’s better pitchers.

“It’s a big part of my game,” Finley said. “If a guy doesn’t like it, he’s more than welcome to come out and talk to me about it. Half of that plate is mine.

“Those big hitters, you’ve got to get them off of the plate. They’ll lean over and kill you. The Winfields, (Jose) Cansecos, (Juan) Gonzalezes, (Danny) Tartabulls. You don’t let them know that you’ll come inside, they’ll dig in.

“That’s one reason I think (Seattle’s) Randy Johnson is so dominating. He’s just wild enough to scare the hell out of them boys. I hear our hitters talking.”

But before dismissing every batter as a quiche-eating, Barry Manilow-loving, card-carrying softy, almost to a man, hitters will say only one thing bothers them about brushback pitches.

“They shouldn’t happen around the head,” Texas outfielder Canseco said firmly. “It should be from the waist down. If it happens around the head, (hitters) try to give some kind of indication like, ‘Don’t let it happen again or we’ll be out to the mound.’ ”

Chicago slugger Frank Thomas agreed with Canseco but said sometimes hitters need to be more discerning.

“There’s been so much fighting lately that everyone thinks everyone is trying to throw at them,” Thomas said. “I don’t think they are.”

Which is Finley’s point.

“Hitters today are very fragile up there,” Finley said. “Brushback pitches are misinterpreted.”

Part of the reason they are not employed as much today is that baseball and individual organizations, in an effort to inject more offense into the game, have thrown a few changeups of their own since 1968--the “Year of the Pitcher.”

“They’ve brought the fences in, they’ve lowered the mound, they’ve narrowed the strike zone,” said Texas pitching coach Claude Osteen, who pitched for five teams, including the Dodgers, from 1957 through 1975. “They’ve created a situation where they’re basically taking away from the pitcher.

“And shortly after that, they narrowed the rules even more, made it more restrictive so that as soon as an umpire sees an inside pitch, he issues a warning.

“You get in this game exactly what you create. . . . There’s no question that it’s show business today. They’ve made it show business.”

Indeed, an umpire today can issue a warning after the first brushback pitch, and any close pitch thereafter--by either side--can be cause for ejection from the game.

“Umpires control the game,” Seattle coach Ken Griffey said. “When I played, there were (rarely) brawls because you knew if a pitcher was getting beat up, he was only going to stand for so much. That was basically what the game was about.”

And sometimes, allowing players to police themselves is the best method, anyway.

“As a catcher, I always took pride in that I never let a batter get to the pitcher,” Rodgers said. “It was a pride thing--except when Jim Coates was pitching.

“He had a reputation as a headhunter, and I could tell when he was going after somebody. Then, I would tell the batter: ‘I don’t care. Go get the S.O.B.’ ”

Problem is, that’s what too many batters are doing today on pitches that obviously aren’t beanballs. The Winfields and Cansecos and Rickey Hendersons dig in close to the plate, step back and adjust their wristbands after nearly every pitch and then dig in again.

And they will bunt if it helps them, or swing away when they should bunt, and at times, it will look as if they are padding their statistics in preparation for next year’s arbitration hearing.

Or they will hit one over the fence and go into an exaggerated home run trot, complete with high fives, low fives, elbow bashes, whatever might be the hip celebration of the day, and finish it off with a curtain call.

And the guy on the mound is expected to stand there and take it. Until, that is, he can’t take it anymore.

“If it’s all right to bunt on somebody with an eight- or nine-run lead,” Finley said, “then it’s all right to lay somebody on their butt.”

Try telling that to the hitters. And remember--it has been awhile since Cobb batted.

Editor’s Note

Don Drysdale, Hall of Fame pitcher who died Saturday at the age of 56, was interviewed for this story Friday by phone from Montreal.