The Code: Baseball's Unwritten Rules and Its Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct

by Ross Bernstein, Rob Dibble, Torii Hunter

In The Code, 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, The Code 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.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book, but unfortunately it was poorly written, badly researched, and uninteresting. The author's sources are essentially Sporting News and Star Tribune articles from the last 20 years and interviews with retired Minnesota Twins. Very few of the players Bernstein interviewed have contrary opinions, so the quotes and stories end up reiterating the author's point again and again, ad infinitum.

There is little need for this book to be as long as it is, and this book was less than 300 pages long. The description of what the code is and why it exists is clearly made in the preface, making the final 265 pages extremely redundant.

The author could have written a very interesting social commentary on athletes and their need for certain unwritten rules of conduct had he researched the origins of "The Code" instead of focusing on the last 20-30 years. The code in the days of Ty Cobb and John McGraw is glossed over, but the author explores every nuance of the code as experienced by players like Terry Steinbach and Rick Aguilera.

Unless you enjoy reading Rob Dibble's thoughts about how awesome it is to intimidate people, there is very little to justify reading this one.

[Scott Breslove · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Code was a good, simple, book. If you are a baseball fan, it is a good book to read, in part because it is an easy read, with clearly defined chapters and the language it is written in is easily understandable (and no, im not talking about the book being in English, i mean the authors prose). The book also includes a lot of quotes directly from players, current majors leaguers, all the way to Hall of Famers. The only problem I had with the book is the way that some of the quotes are presented. While reading, you are suddenly confronted with a shaded in box containing a players quote on the topic of the chapter. That kind of stuff really throws me off. I am in a flow of reading the chapter, and then BAM, one of those shaded boxes. What do you do with them? Do you stop where you are and read the shaded box, or do you finish your paragraph and read the shaded box, or do you finish the chapter and then read all the shaded boxes that were in that chapter? I found it easier to finish a chapter and then read the shaded box, but I don't really like the "shaded box gimmick", either include the players quote in the flow of the chapter, which was also done during this book, or give me a collection of quotes at the end of the chapter. I don't know why this gimmick is becoming more and more prevalent, possibly because of the influx of ADD or whatever, people need a little break within their chapter, but I have to say I HATE it, it kills the flow of the book, and really throws me off. Oooootherwise..... nice little book, quick read, if it wasn't for the "shaded box gimmick" the book might have gotten another star.

[Dustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a solid three stars. I liked the subject matter. It's full of things you might know, and thing you might not know. My real gripe was with the presentation. The chapters are laid out by each subject pertaining to the code. That's all well and good, but each chapter is filled with numerous side bars, relating stories from former players, managers, umps etc. about that chapters current subject. They're all worth reading, but having to jump around constantly is annoying. I felt like it would have been easier to leave the perspectives at the end of each chapter. Other than that, a solid enough read for a baseball fan.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read about the parts of baseball not covered by the rules book. It's a bit hyperbolic in style and definitely formulaic. "If you do this, then someone's going to hit you in the head with a baseball just liked happened on July 11th, 1953." Some of it is contradictory as well, but that definitely goes to show you that not everyone interprets the code the same way. I found the part on sign stealing the most interesting, but unfortunately the book was published before the latest episode with the Houston Astros.

[David S Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting introduction to the game behind the game

Reading The Code opens your eyes to a lot going in during a ballgame that you probably never noticed. It’s very comprehensive. However I think the author didn’t need so many examples from long-forgotten games or meandering quotes from various ball players on each point. It gets to where it seems like padding. Maybe one long quote then something like “pitcher Joe Smith agrees. ‘I always drill players who celebrate a home run,’ he said.”

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok

Not as good as I expected. Some of the "codes" are a matter of opinion. I think that is ok to score as much as possible

[Matt Hoyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting account of the unspoken code of baseball. But I'm thankful that changes to the rules have helped limit some of the behaviors that have been business-as-usual for so long.

[Eric Berg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall an interesting read. Best if you haven’t played a lot of ball. It’s close to a 5 star of you are a Twins fan as almost all interviews are from former Twins.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Makes baseball more accessible for those of us who don't follow but have some knowledge. Skill does not equate to a win avidentaly. Who knew.

[Gary Braham · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were days I considered this book closer to four star, there were some days it was almost unreadable. I was right around a 2.5 for the book, until the final paragraph, which was the entire conclusion of the book. The book jumped around from topic to topic, but just abruptly ended, without any sort of commentary or conclusions. A dissapointing end to a book that had more negatives than positives.

Points must first be deducted for the formatting of the book. I've never had to do that before for a professionally published book. Each chapter of the book focuses on a different issue, some are two pages long, others are 20. But then the author likes to use sidebars to let people involved in the game explain the issue in their own words. It's interesting, but all the sidebars are built into the chapter, and with the authors style, there is no easy place to break off and read the sidebar, but you can't ignore it either. Very frustrating.

Some points also need to be deducted for the topics. At least for the first part of the book, it's simply not very interesting, and rather repatative. If you do this, you are going to get beaned, if you do that, you're gonig to get beaned. Baseball players seem to need a wider range of punishments for breaking the code. Their ability to enforce themselves seems pretty limited. While this book might help you appreciate baseball on a deeper level, there's really a lot going on that most fans don't even know about, the book also makes baseball players look a bit like primative meatheads. "This guy hit a homerun off of me and looked at it, better hit him" Or maybe it's your teammate who broke the code and gets you hit. And sometimes, if you've gotten a couple of hits in a row, they are going to throw a 95 mile an hour fastball at you, just cause. Doesn't exactly make them sound like professionals.

Once you get past the beanball chapters, which seem to be the same thing over and over again, just with a different code violation, there is some pretty interesting reading. There was a section of the book on sign stealing that was pretty interesting. Unless you were overtly stealing signs, then you got beaned.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um, fluff for baseball fans? A quick read, with way too much talk about intimidation (seriously. every other sentence.), but featuring good stories about Ty Cobb spiking opposing players (or fans, or umps, or managers) he didn't like, Don Drysdale keeping a list written on the bill of his cap so that he could check off names as he retaliated against pitchers who had hit his teammates, and the Clemens/Piazza/bat fiasco.

It's telling that the vast majority of guys who went on record with Bernstein are retired. But he got players, managers, umps, owners, and reporters to talk about "the code", which is pretty impressive. Ironically, one of the chapters is about the Code of the Clubhouse, which is much like Vegas - what happens there, stays there.

I'll admit it - the best parts were the stories of bench clearing fights, which means that I'm even more eager for my library to finally get in Benchclearing.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book wasn't quite what I expected when I started reading it but it has some interesting points of view, particularly in the last chapter which is on the use of steroids in baseball. I was particularly interested in Mike Marshall's comment and what it seems to say about the time-line and the attitude of the owners.

It was also interesting that the longest chapter by far was the one on stealing signs.

[Deanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

I put this book down for a couple of days before coming back to it. Not something I usually do. I love baseball and baseball stories. The only good part of this book were some of those stories, but they were not enough. How many times did I have to read "It's about respect."? Too many. This was a sports column that had mistakenly been stretched to a book. Not enough there. Not written well enough. Disappointing.

[Mr. Stoner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked this book. However the picture on the front of a 40+ Nolan Ryan and a 20 something Robin Ventura is what made me but it. Unfortunately, it is one of the most memorable moments of my lifetime, right there with Fisk reliving Deion to respect the game at home plate, Bo Jackson running across the outfield wall & We Are Family! But I digress. It hit home and was a fun read as a former baseball player.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book isn't bad. it is, however, three times longer than it needs to be. there's only so much i can hear about going inside, high and tight, the brushback, or any other name for the same policing mechanism that is being killed out of baseball. there were a few more elements of "the code" discussed, but they were treated almost as footnotes. oh well, i like baseball.

[J.W. Nicklaus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of very interesting game-within-the-game tidbits, yet very thorough. Fun to see how the players respond to questions about the unwritten code of conduct. A lot of baseball history, but it doesn't read like a statistical manual. Certainly upped my understanding of the game and gives me a whole new perspective when watching it.

[Les · Rating 2 out of 5]

One-sitting baseball fluff. The stories and themes became quite repetitive. Reading the words of the players was a nice inside baseball look. The way the book is formatted, the author acts more like an editor of past players' quotes with some commentary. As a Twins fan, the use of the hometown players of my youth was interesting, but probably not for everyone.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Examines baseball’s unwritten code of conduct. While fun, was a little put off by the style, with way too many sections prefaced by “In the matter of…” and lots of sidebar stories which made it feel more like reading a magazine. Plus, I had already read a good book about the same subject and this one didn’t come off as well. 3 of 5.

[Azar Mcmaster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horribly, horribly written and organized. However, the stories are all interesting. It's more like reading a hardbound Sports Illustrated with lots of interesting stories. But the writing and organization of the "book" is atrocious.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting if you're a baseball fan!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good explanations and interviews with the players on what they think of the code and how it has changed over the years.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very little meat to this book. When I saw that the author is a motivational speaker, I wasn't surprised. This is barely worth skimming for a few anecdotes.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting for a baseball fan, just wish he didn't relate everything in baseball back to hockey!

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, love, love this book. Repetitive at times and the page layout isn't good, but very interesting an informative. Everyone who is a baseball fan should read this.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting stories, but not terribly well written

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

The topic was interesting but I hated how it was formatted which broke up the text. Nor was their a lot of meat to it.