Old School Baseball

In the 8^th inning of a 1-0 Red Sox Indians game, Eduardo Nunez swung and missed a pitch from Corey Kluber.

NESN Broadcast and former MLB player, Jonny Gomes said that Nunez took a big swing or swung for the fences or whatever parlance-of-our-time you prefer.

On the next pitch, Nunez was hit in the elbow.

Jonny Gomes said this was “old school baseball.”

This implies that Kluber hit Nunez on purpose.

Which raises questions like:

Was Kluber personally offended that Nunez swung hard?

If so, why?

Would Kluber have been personally offended if Nunez swung medium or light or instead of swinging for the fences (plural) only swung for a fence (singular)?

Or would Kluber have been offended if Nunez swung for a gork or a groundball with eyes to quote Crash Davis?

Why would any kind of swing personally offend Kluber?

Maybe the swing didn’t offend Kluber but instead, disrespected the game?

And this is why, per old school baseball, Kluber intentionally hit Nunez.

How does any kind of swing disrespect the game of baseball?

Is a bunt swing disrespectful? If so why? How?

Does any kind of swing disrespect competition?

I don’t know but I do know this, because Kluber’s intentionally hit batter took first and Brock Holt took second and then scored on a swing of some sort which apparently offended no one and not the game of baseball.

Help me understand how a swing disrespects anyone or anything.

I ask to learn.

Because after Gomes said that this was old school basbeball, implying the bean ball, I thought he was incorrect.

I thought that the competitor in Kluber knew that Nunez’ swing, be it hard or soft or medium or light or tepid or colossal or monstrous or hackneyed or uppercutted or Dave Kingman-like, is irrelevant.

Kluber the competitor knows that the real competition is with himself and locating his pitch, calibrating a baseball, on a level that an infinitesimally small proportion of the world’s population can do, into a catcher’s mitt 60 feet 6 inches away at speeds we mere mortals can’t really fathom.

But I’m wrong.

Kluber hit him on purpose.

And the Indians lost.