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Posted on 10/11/2015 7:22:13 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
Please ping me with any Southern California related articles. Thank you!
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I looked at your first five YouTube links and in all five cases, the runner began his slide before the bag. Utley didn't do that.
Nope. Not what happened. The league has been allowing players to get further and further off the baseline over the last twenty years and it’s time to put a stop to it. Utley made no effort to even reach for the bag with his left hand. He’s a second rate player who’s tarnished a great career by hanging on several years too long. He should be suspended for the rest of the postseason. Other than as a legbreaker, he isn’t going to help the Dodgers much anyway.
I don’t want to give you a hard time, but this wasn’t out of line. He hit him low and knocked Tajada’s legs out from under him. The way Tajada went down, it looked to me like he had avoided leg planting. Evidently not so.
Most players in this situation will hop to get their feet off the ground. This prevents injury. Tajada was fielding a bit of a poor throw and couldn’t set up very well.
When a guy goes in cleats high, that is a dirty slide. When he goes in with his body it’s generally a less dangerous move.
Hundreds of these types of plays took place this season.
This was just a take down, and the runner is free to over-run any base at their own risk.
You’ll hardly ever see this type of injury. It was a freak play, but not dirty.
Mets fans will see it that way, but you have to weigh what gone on literally thousands of times, and this wasn’t out of line.
That’s my take. There will be those who see it differently, even here.
No way.
I agree with you.
If you start suspending people for this, there will be no end to the second-guessing.
I don’t want that. It will change the game, and that shouldn’t happen.
This relieves the tension while play is going on in New York. Just play ball.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
First thing I also thought....
No controversy over being ‘deliberately’ hit by a pitch, no having to put extra police on lest some come over the wall to attack him etc.... We are talking NY fans here.
They (the teams) will be able to concentrate on baseball, NOT the side show.
Of course I wouldn’t want to be one of the Dodger infielders should an ‘opportunity’ or something come up......or one of those ‘star’ pitchers fielding a perfectly placed bunt up the first base line
You've never been allowed to deliberately target another player for injury which is exactly what happens here. Utley has a decent shot at a safe play at the bag, and he deliberately went after the shortstop instead of trying to get there.
From this lifelong Dodger fan, it was a cheap play that should not have happened.
I've seen a thousand plays just like that...And they didn't end in injury.
Anyone saying different...doesn't watch baseball on a regular basis.
I used to play....So, I've some real life experience.
IMO< exactly right. Literally thousands of these play happen with no injury. Here a broken leg occurs.
It’s my take him twisting to turn around, and the runner hitting him just right at an already high stress point, just popped it.
I feel sorry for Tajada who obviously was excited to get to play in the playoffs and now can’t.
I actually feel sorry for Utley too. I’m sure he didn’t mean to take Tajada out like this.
Exactly. My take is Utley didn't expect Tejada to swing back towards him. He thought Tejada was going to swing to the right out of his path and throw to first. The tipoff of what Utley was thinking was that his face hit Tejada's knee when Tejada swung back around to the left. Putting your face into someone's knee is hardly the type of thing that someone, no matter how tough they are, does intentionally.
Not what happened? Elaborate please..
& bashing Utley as a player has nothing to do with the argument here of whether illegal slide or not.
The league has been allowing this kind of violence to escalate for about twenty years. An umpire has always been allowed to eject a pitcher -- even without a warning -- if he feels there was a deliberate attempt to injure another player, and a hard slide into second used to require you to make an in-slide to the bag. Just as is the case with a plonk, the question of whether the hard slide occurred in an attempt to reach the bag or was deliberately done is a judgment call and always has been. The ump could -- and should -- have immediately asked for a crew chief video review, and after the review should have awarded a double play. That is AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN WITHIN THE AUTHORITY OF THE UMPIRE TO DO WHEN HE FEELS A HARD SLIDE IS DELIBERATE AND ILLEGAL.
FReepers claiming they know baseball who think that a hard slide with no attempt to reach base safely "has always been part of the game" are completely full of it.
FReepers who claim they've seen a thousand games and don't know that are full of baloney.
It is generally permitted for the runner to go after the player anywhere in that general vicinity.
Tajeda had just tagged second base. He didn’t take a number of steps afterwards, either away from the bag toward right or center field. He was right there. This because you don’t have time for it. You have to get that ball off to convert the double play.
Video of the runner going by the bag shot from the first base angle, showed Utley’s hand going over the bag. He wasn’t three feet out of the base path.
As for over-running the bag, that is permissible, and yet he did slide right at the bag where Tajada was.
Late slide? Somewhat but not a flagrant fowl.
This is what the runner is supposed to do. You don’t do it and you’re not hustling for your team.
The Mets would have done the very same thing if the rolls were reversed. It’s just a shame that out of thousands of these types of plays, this one wound up with a break.
I can tell you have never played or if you have, your coach did not know what he was doing.
The runner uses his lower leg to flip the fielder specifically so he will not hurt him. If he wants to hurt him, he goes in feet first.
Accidents happen.
Thanks Doug. I appreciate your differing opinion.
Really? He BROKE the guy’s LEG. Did that used to happen regularly in the good old days?
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