The Kansas City Royals are intent on teaching Tim Anderson the unwritten rules

Touchdown celebrations are allowed in football.

Goals in hockey? Raise your stick, pump your fist, let out a yell and hug your teammates.

A slam dunk or a 3-point play in basketball gets everyone fired up, right?

However, in baseball, if a batter hits a home run, he is to drop his bat quietly, lower his head and solemnly round the bases -- quickly. Otherwise, he might hurt the tender sensitivities of the pitcher who just gave up the hit.

That's the message the Kansas City Royals sent White Sox shortstop Tim Anderson on Wednesday. Anderson hit a mammoth two-run homer off Kansas City starter Brad Keller in the fourth inning at Guaranteed Rate Field. After making contact, Anderson tossed his bat javelin-style back toward his own dugout and appeared to exhort his teammates, as if to say, "Let's go!"

Now, now, now, Timmy, that show of emotion is not acceptable in this stodgy, ole game of baseball.

Keller -- who is probably the best pitcher on the butthurt, last-place Royals, which isn't saying much -- drilled Anderson in ass in the sixth inning as punishment. Not satisfied, Royals players and coaches came on the field and started chirping at Anderson for his transgression as he slowly made his way down the first-base line. Of course, benches and bullpens emptied. Anderson and Keller both were ejected.

I don't know what Kansas City pitching Cal Eldred is thinking about. His team has one of the highest bullpen ERAs in the league. Perhaps he should be more concerned about that than teaching Anderson a lesson, but yelling at a player on the opposing team for hitting a home run off one of his pitchers seemed to be a high priority today.

Look, I'm not a real fan of the celebration of mundane things. And celebrating a home run in the fourth inning of an April game between two bad teams is not real high on my to-do list.

But, I'm also not going to go into "old man yells at cloud" mode either. A new generation is coming into the game, one that doesn't mind celebrating hits in the fourth inning, and one that doesn't mind charging onto the field as if they've won the World Series after a ninth-inning victory. Times have changed, and I'm OK with that.

More over, all 30 teams in baseball "pimp" home runs now, so in my mind, any team that gets pissed off about another team celebrating a home run is living in a glass house.

Get over yourselves, Royals. If you don't want Anderson to celebrate, get him out next time.

Does anyone else wonder whether these bizarre "unwritten rules" are among the reasons some young people today find baseball boring?

You know, baseball is a game. It's OK if the people playing it have some fun.

If Keller strikes Anderson out in that situation, I wouldn't have minded it if he had pumped his fist for pitching out of a jam. So, why should anyone mind if Anderson flipped his bat when he had success?

It's time to lighten up.

For the record, the Royals won, 4-3, in 10 innings, but the Sox took two of three in the series. So, the Sox (7-10) are in fourth place and the Royals (6-12) are in last. That's probably where these two teams will stay all season.