should accompany the testiness down in Texas.
One is that the Cubs and Pirates didn’t engage in a full-blown beanball battle over the weekend.
The other is that the Sox didn’t demonstrate more fight — figuratively and literally — against the Yankees.
The real competition in baseball this season has been between old school and new school over the game’s unwritten rules.
The Blue Jays annoyed the Rangers during last year’s postseason by violating traditional etiquette.
Specifically, Jose Bautista’s epic bat flip punctuated the home run that eliminated the Rangers from the playoffs.
Stagecoach purists considered it poor sportsmanship while space-age revolutionaries considered it pure fun.
Seven months later, the Rangers exacted a measure of revenge by hitting Bautista with a pitch. A few minutes later Bautista slid hard into second base, Odor punched him in the face and benches emptied.
Good stuff, it says here.
The situation developed after Nationals slugger Bryce Harper recently began a debate by declaring that baseball needs players to demonstrate more emotion on the field.
The debate’s flip side, so to speak, is that players should respect opponents and act professionally.
Cubs pitcher John Lackey has become sort of a sheriff of the game, confronting opponents who ignore the baseball code.
You know what?
Each side is right and each will police the other over a long season that features short tempers.
Baseball is a seven-month drama, and every drama requires conflict.
It’s OK if Harper hits a homer off Lackey, stares at the trajectory, whirlybirds his bat, glares at the pitcher and dances the Macarena around the bases.
Meanwhile, it’s also OK if a couple of innings later Lackey hurls a warning shot that might get away from him and rise up around Harper’s cranial area.
If a Harper shows off, that’s entertainment; if a Lackey drills him, that’s baseball.
Nobody says that Harper and Lackey or Bautista and Odor or any Cubs pitcher and any Pirates hitter have to like each other.
If pacifists don’t appreciate the occasional dust-up, they can go listen to the church choir perform.
mimrem@dailyherald.com