Maryland baseball’s thoughts on unwritten rules

In a February matchup against Maryland baseball, Ole Miss outfielder TJ McCants stepped to the plate. Leading 5-2 in the third inning, McCants launched a home run into right field.

As the ball flew through the air, the junior stood in the batter’s box admiring its flight, much to the displeasure of Maryland junior catcher Luke Shliger. Shliger popped up from his spot, having some words with McCants as he began his trip around the bases.

“Get down the line, stop standing there,” Shliger said he told McCants. 

As McCants made his way back home plate with his teammates forming a semi-circle of celebration, Shliger once again had some words for McCants.

What made Shliger so upset? The constant battle in baseball over the ethics of theatrics. 

Baseball is a game that has numerous unwritten rules, and different traditions that have been followed for years. Some of these rules involve the sportsmanship of the game, such as showboating after a big home run. Others involve how to act in different game situations, such as stealing bases when ahead by a wide margin. 

Recent years have started to see an increased amount of players battling back against the once-conventional ideals.

College teams have increasingly added props to celebrations, such as Texas A&M munching on Pringles and Virginia Tech wielding a hammer after home runs. Just last year, the Tennessee Volunteers introduced a cheetah fur coat into their home run theatrics. After every single one of their 158 homers in 2022, the coat was given to the home run hitter, in addition to a light pink hat reading ‘Daddy.’ The celebrations stirred an NCAA rules change, barring the use of celebratory props outside of the dugout. 

This emergence of a new generation’s ideas has creeped its way into the Terps as well. 

Maryland has dealt with the paradox of bat-flipping, as evidenced by Shliger’s conflicting thoughts on that weekend in Oxford.  

“There’s, there’s kind of a line for everything. And I think when the line gets crossed that’s when you have to step in a little bit,” Shliger said. “So I mean I gave [McCants] his time to stand and look at the ball. But once he got a little bit too out of line I had to stand up for my pitcher.”

While Shliger felt that McCants took the dramatics to the next level, he also knows that Maryland has had its share of electric moments. Even Shliger himself supports celebrating players’ feats, such as bat flipping. Against UConn in the NCAA Regionals last season, the catcher crushed a leadoff home run on the sixth pitch of the game, chucking his bat while letting the Huskies hear about it.

Two weekends ago against Iowa, star junior shortstop Matt Shaw tossed his bat following a go-ahead grand slam in the sixth, admiring his 507-foot bomb fly through the sky.

“I’m not a big bat flip guy…I honestly didn’t mean to bat flip,” Shaw said. “If you’re gonna be disrespectful and have a crazy bat flip and they get up in your face, it’s like ‘Ok you deserve it’.”

Even Shaw’s veteran coach sees the fun in breaking these ‘rules’, stressing that the MLB and NCAA are two different games.

“That’s college athletics and sometimes people want to scream about the unwritten rules of baseball and they forget that and these are kids,” coach Rob Vaughn said. “Let’s go out and have fun. Let’s play with energy. Let’s play with passion.”

Vaughn admits that he will still get irritated when it is done to him and his team. Yet, he understands that it’s a part of the game, and that’s what makes each team’s unique personality great.

“[It] still makes me mad every time when I see a pitcher stare at our dugout…it makes me angry every time,” Vaughn said. “That’s part of the game. It’s part of what makes college really fun to watch and really exciting.”