Should baseball’s unwritten rules be made history?

BOSTON — There were two more no-hitters this past week. Every division race is tight. Shohei Ohtani is doing what seems impossible and Albert Pujols joined the Dodgers.

But the hottest topic in baseball was a 76-year-old manager fuming about a 28-yearold rookie having the temerity to hit a home run.

When it comes to shooting itself in the foot, baseball never misses.

Imagine an NBA coach admonishing a player for entertaining the crowd with a creative dunk in the final minutes of a lopsided game.

You can’t. That would be ridiculous.

But when Rookie of the Year candidate Yermin Mercedes of the White Sox swung at a 3-and-0 pitch and homered off the Twins’

Willians Astudillo on Monday night, it set off days of controversy.

Because the White Sox were leading, 15-4, at the time and had a position player on the mound, Chicago manager Tony La Russa wanted Mercedes to take a pitch.

“I took several steps from the dugout onto the field, yelling, ‘Take, take, take,’ “La Russa said. “The way he was set up, it looked to me like he was going to swing.

“I was upset because that’s not a time to swing 3-0. He missed a 3-0 take sign. With that kind of lead, that’s just sportsmanship and respect for your opponent.

“He made a mistake. There will be a consequence he has to endure here within our family.”

Consequences to endure for hitting a home run. Has it really come to that?

According to the vaunted unwritten rules of baseball, Mercedes could have swung at a 3-and-1 pitch without disrespecting the Twins. But 3 and 0 was forbidden.

Meanwhile, are people really paying close attention to the count in a 15-4 game?

Astudillo is a stout utility player whose nickname is La Tortuga — The Turtle. He threw a looping 47-mile-per-hour pitch that Mercedes crushed. Is that really so awful?

“Big mistake,” La Russa said. “The fact that he’s a rookie, and excited, helps explain why he just was clueless. But now he’s got a clue.”

La Russa’s age isn’t the issue here. Old-school sensibilities are.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli, who is 39, said he was surprised by Mercedes swinging.

“Those things still happen in this game, and we have to deal with it,” Baldelli said.

They did. On Tuesday, Twins reliever Tyler Duffey threw behind Mercedes in the seventh inning. He was ejected, as was Baldelli.

Duffey was later suspended for three games and Baldelli for one.

La Russa was fine with Minnesota throwing behind Mercedes.

“I didn’t have a problem with how the Twins handled that,” he said.

White Sox pitcher Lance Lynn came to the defense of Mercedes that night.

“The way I see it, for position players on the mound, there are no rules,” he said. “Let’s get the damn game over with. And if you have a problem with whatever happens, then put a pitcher out there. Can’t get mad when there’s a position player on the field and a guy takes a swing.”

La Russa shut down that talk quickly.

“Lance has a locker; I have an office,” he said.

Via Instagram, White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson threw his support to Mercedes.

“The game wasn’t over!” he wrote. “Keep doing you big daddy.”

La Russa is not the best messenger about rules, unwritten or otherwise. He left a pitcher as the runner on second base to start the 10th inning of a game earlier this month because he didn’t know it was permissible to use the player preceding the pitcher in the batting order.

Mercedes may have been a little overeager. But can you blame him? He’s a career minor leaguer who unexpectedly made the team out of spring training and hit .358 with a .960 OPS through his first 38 games this season.

He’s realizing his dream. Now this happens.

“I’m going to play like that. I’m Yermin. I can’t be another person because if I change it, everything is going to change,” Mercedes told reporters. “We’re just having fun. It’s baseball.”

La Russa is a Hall of Fame manager. But he was out of uniform for nine years and what’s accepted around the game has changed. Players are more expressive and less inclined to accept groupthink.

So, what can be done?

“Let the kids play,” was the slogan MLB came up with a few years ago.

It’s more like let the game breathe. Mercedes was just having a little fun.