I am, as regular readers here know, a life-long Red Sox fan and I was already a Tolle fan (he’s a terrific pitcher, destined to become a big star). My biases are a problem here. I also risk being inconsistent. I wrote many posts years ago here explaining why Red Sox superstar slugger Manny Ramirez was a disgrace to the game, in part because he acted like a 10-year-old in the field. Once, in a game I watched at Baltimore’s Camden Yards, Manny made a difficult catch (for him, anyway) in left field and before throwing the ball to an infielder to try to get a double play, paused to give a high-five to a fan in the stands. The seconds that silliness took might have made the difference between an out and an Orioles runner being on the bases and able to score: I felt that the Red Sox manager should have pulled Manny from the game on the spot.
However, I see an important distinction between “Manny being Manny” (that was the mantra among Ramirez fans) while a play was going on, and Tolle being Tolle to end an inning, since there were already two outs and tagging Canzone was out #3. Were both plays unprofessional? I have to say that they were. Was Tolle’s play a potential slippery slope (what’s next, a kiss?)? Yes, I see that issue too.
[I have to interject this somewhere: asked if he knew the object of his hug, Canzone, Tolle said, “I do now!”]
Was the The Hug in the best interests of the team, the franchise, and baseball? Well, the home fans loved it, but then the Orioles fans loved Manny’s gesture too, and a lot of Red Sox fans, though far from all, appreciated it as well. The up-side: The Hug was charming and funny. Baseball’s capacity for surprises is a feature it has that no other sport can match. The down-side: Tolle’s hug could be interpreted as a sign that these obscenely high-paid athletes don’t really care too much about who wins the games. I’m pretty sure the team’s reaction to The Hug would have been quite different if the huggee had been a New York Yankee.
But maybe not.
Your Ethics Alarms Baseball Ethics Quiz of the Day:
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.