What would Rickey think?

Is there any rule in baseball that is more ridiculous than "defensive indifference" ? 

I suppose if the defense makes no attempt to throw out a runner, then there must be some kind of ruling, right? Apparently, defensive indifference has been around since 1920 — though it wasn't necessarily called that then.

 The "king" of stolen bases, Rickey Henderson. Photo credit belongs to John-Morgan at http://www.flickr.com/people/aidanmorgan/. The dude stole 1,406 bases in his career, that's 50% more than Lou Brock's previous career record! What would he think of "defensive indifference" ruining one of his thefts?

I don't remember the ruling being called much before 10 or 15 years ago. Maybe it was something that resulted from the steroid era — people stole fewer bases so fewer stolen bases were credited.

Any thoughts?