The Code

In The Code: Baseball's Unwritten Rules and Its Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct, author Ross Bernstein has pulled back the curtain on baseball's tacit rules regarding retaliation, sportsmanship, and intimidation. The result of dozens of interviews with some of the biggest names in the game, this work is a systematic description of every major "unwritten rule" in the game today—from brushback pitches, bunting during a no-hitter, and running up the score, to home-run celebrations, stealing signs, and the use of performance-enhancing drugs.