Yermín Mercedes is hitting .346 with six home runs in his breakout rookie season, numbers that should win him praise from manager and everyone else rooting for the Chicago White Sox to make a run deep into October.
And, no, he’s never read the unwritten rules of baseball. He can’t, because, well, they’re unwritten.
Tony La Russa seems to know them anyway, which isn’t surprising. And La Russa seems intent on teaching them to his young slugger, who made what might otherwise be chalked up to a rookie mistake by hitting a 47 mph pitch thrown by a position player over . . .