What is the Worst Unwritten Rule in Baseball?

Every sport seems to have what are called "unwritten rules". These rules are either rules on how you should play the game, the strategy used in the game or some of them are all about sportsmanship. No sport has more unwritten rules than baseball. Some of these rules make plenty of sense but others don't make sense. My personal least favorite unwritten rule in baseball is that a player should never get the first or third out at third base.

It is understandable why this unwritten rule exists. The idea is that during the course of the game it is very costly to get the first or third out at third base. If the runner is thrown out at third base as the first out then you've wasted a great opportunity. By staying at second base the runner would be in scoring position with no outs. If the runner is thrown out at third base as the third out then the inning is over and again, it is a wasted opportunity to score. There would still be two outs if the runner stayed at second, but at least the inning is over.

The problem isn't that I disagree it is dumb to get the first and third outs at third base, but I don't understand the exclusion of second base. Why is it only stupid to get the third and first out at third base and not the second out? If a runner gets thrown out at third base on the second out then isn't that a wasted opportunity just like the first and third out? Wouldn't it be better to have a runner on second with one out? Getting the second out at third base is even more costly than getting the first out. Now the inning is one out closer to ending.

When a runner gets the second out at third base does the coach pat him on the bottom and say, "don't worry kid, it was only the second out." I doubt it. Either the runner was hustling and made a small mistake or the runner made a boneheaded mistake. It's no different than the first or third out. Here is an idea, how about you don't get any outs at third base?

Here's another question. Why is this unwritten rule only about third base? I understand that third base is one base short of home plate so it seems more significant, but really isn't it just as stupid to get an out at second or first base? When a player gets thrown out at second does his teammates slap him high-fives and say, "good thing that wasn't third base." If anything, getting throw out at third base is better than second or first. At least the runner got the third base (or at least close to third base before he was thrown out).

If it were possible to edit rules that aren't written down then we need to take the eraser to this one. Let's write a new unwritten rule instead. "Don't get outs. It doesn't matter if it's the first out, second out or third out. It doesn't matter if the out is at first base, second base, third base or home plate. Just don't get out."