Peyton Tolle is a Boston Red Sox rookie and already a team mate and fan favorite for his big extrovert personality that matches his huge frame (6’6,” about 260 pounds), highlighted by Tolle’s obvious joy at playing a kid’s game for a living.
In yesterday’s Red Sox 9-8 extra-innings win over the Seattle Mariners (The Red Sox are having one of their most entertaining seasons ever), Tolle, was Boston’s starting pitcher, did something that nobody could recall any previous major league baseball player doing. As you can see above, when the hulking Tolle went to tag out Mariners player Dominic Canzone on the first base line after fielding a bouncer back to him on the mound, he preceded his tag with a smile and a hug.
Some old timers gag when they see opposing team players even chatting cordially at first base. The unwritten rule of baseball was that on the field the other team was literally a mortal foe, and its players were to be treated as such. In the 1960s a player who did what Tolle did would be excoriated, fined, exiled to the manager’s “dog house” and probably demoted to the minors.
Last night the Red Sox players seemed to get a kick out of their exuberant rookie’s latest surprise—he also likes playing tricks on team mates—saying, “That’s Tolle!” as the agreed-upon answer when questioned by reporters after the game. The sports media was all positive, with ESPN calling The Hug “The most wholesome play of the season.”
Ethics Alarms 
Baseball follows culture, surely.
If it’s wrong in baseball, it means something else is wrong in the culture.
I think Canzone set himself up for it, by not running full throttle to 1st, which is always a no-no. Its as if Dominic gave up and Tolle felt bad for him. However, I think as a manager, I would mention to try to refrain from that in the future. It could lead to nonsense on the base paths.
In a question like this, I ask myself, “What would my baseball hero do?” In this case, Bob Gibson would never hug an opposing player during battle, er, I mean, a game. He might hold his back up catcher’s hand in an official team picture, but that was Bob Uecker for Heaven sakes.
During my long tenure in business, and witnessing all kinds of people and events, I’d highly recommend against hugging anyone in the work place! Sexual harassment can be a murky area and people love to litigate the smallest thing.
If the runner had feigned to move in for the hug but then engaged in an evasive maneuver, Tolle could have been caught off guard just enough for the runner to reach first. Yet, from their postures, it seemed to be gentlemen’s agreement that the out was inevitable.
The hug gesture brightened my morning.
I like to think interactions like this reveal the greater character of a nation.
For transparency purposes, I have to disclose that I am a big fan of hugging.
It took a very long time for me to realize that not everyone likes to be hugged, though. Also, that there is a time and a place to hug people.
A workplace setting, for example, that wants to be taken seriously might want to discourage hugging among colleagues and, especially, between superiors and subordinates. An employee that wants to be taken seriously might decide that hugging people in the office undermines that goal. One never knows how another person may react to spontaneous hugging, after all. It might be welcomes, it might be spurned, it might give you an unwanted love interest or it might get you reprimanded by HR.
During a baseball game, a player is expected to be professional. Is it any different from being in a boardroom, a classroom or an examining room?
On the other hand, we do have to consider the audience. My childhood dentist used to make funny noises to make me laugh while he was examining my teeth so I wouldn’t be afraid. I consider that ethical. He’s helping me help him do his job.
But Tolle isn’t doing that. We should also consider that another player may not want to be hugged but is reluctant to turn Tolle down because there’s an audience and he doesn’t want to look like a jerk. Putting someone on the spot in public is wrong.
The entertainment factor of sporting events is another consideration. Fans debate this. When you go to see the Harlem Globetrotters, you expect to see hijinks on the court. Maybe you don’t when you watch the Knicks or the 76ers.
The late basketball coach, John Wooden, disapproved of what he called showmanship, “There’s too much individual showmanship… I’m interested in teamwork; in the rhythm of the game; in the beauty of watching a play unfold that eventually leads to a basket.” He was also famous for forbidding showboating in his players.
But that would apply to the actual playing of the game. In a situation in which there is no risk to the scoring, high-fiving or hugging may not be unethical or unprofessional. We live in a culture that is eshewing civility in favor of competitive one-upmanship, encouraging lack of cooperation with people who don’t agree with us. The WNBA is providing us with wretched examples of unsportsmanlike behavior. Seeing competing players showing amity to each other isn’t wrong.
But the time and place are what’s at issue here.
As long as Tolle’s hugs are welcome by other players and are occuring at a time in which the ball is not in play, such as at the end of an inning, I don’t see a problem with it. If precious seconds are lost because Tolle is hugging an outfielder while a pop fly is headed his way, it’s unethical and unprofessional.
Well, I probably walked around John Brown’s barn to get there, but I would say the coach should tell Tolle to knock it off during active play.