George Will has got The Conservative Disease, and he has it bad. He has mistaken "not the done thing" for "bad", mistaken it so thoroughly that he can't explain what's bad about it, and isn't even aware that he hasn't explained it.
Absolutely stymied for any way to explain how carrying the bat with him is poor sportsmanship, he instead reaches for a counterexample of good sportsmanship, true graciousness and professional, "gentlemanly" behavior... that has nothing to do with bats and their positions.
Being gracious about an errant call is the opposite of carrying the bat to first base. Carrying the bat with you to first base is the opposite of being gracious about a bad call. That's how it's bad. That's why it's bad.
The unwritten rules he speaks about are "we don't do this." Why not? "Because we never did them before." So why not do it now? "Because that would be bad." Why? "Because we don't do this."
Does the act of showboating a little with the bat *prevent* civil comportment with the umpire? Does it *block* gracious reception of errant calls? It does not. They're not related.
But George Will is a conservative, and so Good Things and Old Things are the same thing, and New Things and Bad Things are the same thing.
The opposite of a good thing -- such as sportsmanship -- is a new thing, such as having five seconds of exuberant joy in the thrill of the sport.
Did you express a sense of satisfaction at a job well done? No, none of that. The very repressed man in the pinstripe suit remembers a time when that didn't happen, and that means you scare him.
