The Royals have banned fraternization with opponents during the game, and Craig Calcaterra puts two and two together:
Maybe there’s more to this story than meets the eye, but what’s meeting the eye here seems pretty dumb: Royals announcer Rex Hudler has made it his personal mission to stop Royals players from being friendly with opposing players during games, so Ned Yost has put a stop to it.
Notably, this is not the first time Rex Hudler has seen the integrity of competition threatened by socialization. This is from 1992:
Rex Hudler, so far as I can tell from personal experiences, is a peach in real life, but I've never been wearing the opposing team's colors, either.
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All kidding aside, I like that little leaguers shake hands after the game and think MLBers should do so as well if they are role models.
As I recall, LaRussa got into a tiff two or so years ago about fraternization too.
Anymore with guaranteed contracts and the general weakening of social standards the old "non-fraternization" mentality is all but gone. Heck you watch games today and you see base runners yucking it up with the infielders.
Don't know which approach is the right way, but as is often the case a BP writer mocks someone for a standard of conduct they either disagree with or doesn't understand.
I don't think people are unaware that this is the mindset of the clubhouse. They're just lamenting that players haven't matured all that much.