I'm outraged!

Actually, I'm not. It seems, though, most everyone else is.

Especially in Major League Baseball, where it's difficult to find anyone who doesn't feel aggrieved these days.

Baseball has always been a sport in which players and managers get easily perturbed. There seems to be more unwritten rules in the game than written ones.

Steal a base when up by more than five runs? That's a no-no.

Bunt to try to break up a late-inning no-hitter? Bush league.

Slide spikes up into second base? That's a big no-no.

Throw at a batter's head? It's clear-the-bullpens and put-up-your-dukes time.

I get it. There are certain things

Recently, though, more and more preposterous unwritten rules are popping up in a sport that is already hemorrhaging credibility and fans.

The most ridiculous example came Monday night when Yermin Mercedes of the Chicago White Sox muscled up on a 47-mph lollipop of a pitch from Minnesota Twins position player Willians Astudillo on a 3-0 count with the Sox up 15-4 for a home run.

What's wrong with that, you may ask?

According to baseball “purists,” Twin broadcasters and even ancient White Sox manager Tony La Russa, plenty.

Now, it seems, hitting a home run when up by 11 on a 3-0 count is a no-no.

This, I don't get.

No one made Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli put a backup catcher out on the mound to throw like I do.

When Astudillo got an out, everyone in the Twins dugout was smiling and yukking it up — “Hey, look at the pudgy position player throwing 50 mph getting Big League hitters out! Ha ha!”

Then one turns on a 47 mph “fastball” and homers and all of a sudden the sky is falling and Abner Doubleday is rolling over in his grave.

To make matters worse, La Russa sided with the Twins and promised to discipline his hitter for, um, hitting.

If La Russa didn't want him to swing the bat, just have him bunt or take or, heck, just send him up to the plate without a bat.

Or, maybe MLB should just have a mercy rule like in high school baseball. If a team is up by 10 or more runs after seven, game over.

Or ban position players from pitching all together.

Anything but this faux outrage.

The fact that this “issue” has been talked about for the better part of three days shows just how damaged baseball is these days.

Instead of talking about the amazing season that Shohei Ohtani is putting together at the plate AND on the mound, we're discussing unwritten rules.

There are bigger issues in baseball than this.

The game, quite frankly, isn't very good these days.

There's little action. Batting averages are the lowest they have been since the fabled “Year of the Pitcher in 1968. Players are striking out more than at any time in history.

It's a combination of pitchers being so good and batters taking all-or-nothing approaches at the plate.

No one is choking up with two strikes anymore. No one is shortening their swing to simply put the ball into play.

And the game is suffering.

Baseball is broken, and not because players are violating “unwritten rules.”

Baseball is boring. That's what we should all be outraged about.

Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle and his fastball also has been clocked at 47 mph.