After a hard (albeit very hard) slide from veteran Chase Utley into failed ballerina turned shortstop Ruben Tejada, the MLB's Chief Baseball Operator, Joe Torre, came back from his co-ed softball league game, gave a speech at his daughter's local chapter of the Girl Scouts, picked some lovely daises, and then issued Chase Utley a 2 game suspension.
First off... If this was game 48 of the season, nobody would give a fuck, but higher stakes, a bigger stage, and more people watching naturally turns this into a league-wide controversy. As far as I have always known, in baseball, it is perfectly legal to go out of your way to slide into the shortstop or second baseman to break up a double play. According to a poll of 60 current and former major leaguers by Fox Sports commentator and former pitcher CJ Nitkowski, 79 percent agree that Utley's slide was perfectly legal. 71 percent also thought it was "dirty" but wouldn't you expect that in postseason baseball? Nobody is calling for rule changes in basketball for all of the flagrant fouls; many of which have led to injuries.
My take... if you are Tejada, and you know you have Chase Utley barreling down the baseline who has a history of hard slides to try to break up double plays (Tejada knows this personally based on a Mets Phillies game in 2010)... probably not the best time to attempt to make sports center's top 10 and show off your ballet skills with a pirouette on a double play you likely aren't going to turn. It is the base runner's duty to do anything he can to break up the double play, and if you aren't going to do anything to protect yourself from injury... you are going to get hurt... that's science.
You need to adapt to the game... not call for the game to adapt to you.
ahem... Posey...
By: Uncle Todd
You need to adapt to the game... not call for the game to adapt to you.
ahem... Posey...
By: Uncle Todd