SB Nation's MLB Awards - Worst Breaking of Unwritten Rules: Jonathan Papelbon

Today we round out SB Nation's MLB awards with the worst infractions of the unwritten rules. We've already named Bryce Harper as best hitter, Zack Greinke as best pitcher, gave the nod to Justin Wilson for the Yankees' best defensive play of the year, and declared John Ryan Murphy's speech about drinking to be the best celebration of the year. The Pinstripe Alley staff voted on what we decided were the five (best) worst instances of breaking the unwritten rules of baseball and the results were pretty much as expected.

1. Jonathan Papelbon literally chokes Bryce Harper

You can debate whether or not choking out your teammate is an unwritten rule, but this all happened over an actual unwritten rule where it states the best baseball player on the planet has to run at top speed on a routine fly ball. Coming from a relief pitcher, this is hilarious. A whopping nine out of 14 voters picked this as the worst example of human behavior on a baseball field. I hope there's no doubt in anyone's mind that Jonathan Papelbon is a terrible person.

2. Chase Utley breaks a dude's leg

This one was bad. An unwritten rule was very broken. While trying to break up a double play, Chase Utley forgot he was supposed to slide, and instead just barreled into Ruben Tejeda BREAKING HIS LEG. That's not allowed. The slide was so late that people are still making jokes about it on Twitter. Chase Utley, an ancient skeleton of a man, barely able to play professional baseball at this stage of his life, is the worst human being on the planet

T3/4. The Jose Bautista Bat Flip©™

Jose. Bautista. Bat. Flip. This only got one vote because everyone thought it was awesome. I was the only one who voted for this one because I misunderstood the question. C'est la vie, I have no regrets. This is a bad example of an unwritten rule. Also, to the pitchers who have a problem with bat flips: If you don't want hitters flipping bats, don't give up bombs. The end.

There was even a t-shirt available within 24 hours, so there's no way Bautista is the bad guy in this.

T3/4. Brett Lawrie pisses off the Kansas City Royals organization

All the way back in April, Lawrie was being a jerkface, as he often is, when he almost destroyed Alcides Escobar's leg on a slide. It didn't look too too dirty, but it didn't look too too clean either. The worst/best part about it was that it set off a series of events where Lawrie tried to apologize, was given the wrong phone number, and was then called out for not apologizing. He was then thrown at on two separate occasions, caused a benches-clearing kerfuffle, and turned the Royals into a raging energy-train that pushed them all the way through to a World Series title. Totally. As we learned with Utley, baseball's unwritten rules state you don't break bones. Now we know that Brett Lawrie is the worst human who ever lived.

5. Brett Oberholtzer throws at A-Rod

No one voted for this one. Good job guys, I guess it didn't hurt anyone, except for Brett Oberholtzer's career. The guy was demoted, like, the second he got off the field, and he never really got another chance the rest of the season. Listen in as YES absolutely trashes this guy's soul. It's great. He shouldn't have broke the unwritten rule that states don't anger CC Sabathia. Oberholtzer might not be the worst human ever, but he's probably one of the saddest.

Which moment do you think was the worst example of breaking the unwritten rules of baseball? You can vote below!