Posted on 10/11/2015 7:22:13 PM PDT by DoughtyOne
NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball has suspended Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Chase Utley for Games 3 and 4 of the National League Division Series for what the league deemed was an illegal slide into New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
I have watched it a couple of times. It does not look like a dirty play to me. You are supposed to break up a double play. It did not even look like a hard hit and certainly not leading with his spikes.
I think the broken leg was a bit just bad luck.
Should have been for the entire post-season.
the Mets Reuben Tajada & the Dodgers Chase Utley
Utley had no business sliding into Tejada like he did. He was already forced out but he purposely slid away from the base so that he could take out Tejada.
He’s gonna appeal.
‘Should have been for the entire post-season.’
Two more games might well be what’s left of the Dodger’s season :(
Wussification of professional sports continues.
Agreed. This is a slap on the wrist that serves only to make sure he won’t get beaned in the head by a fastball while playing in New York this week.
I remember when Ron Arest(AKA Metta World Peace) hit a player with his elbow while celebrating a play, the media called it a dirty play and he was suspended and trashed in the media..I did NOT consider that a dirty play that was an accident, but this, I saw it last night and it looked pretty intentional to me..good thing Im an Angels fan :-)
That wasnt a slide into a 2nd base (unless Utley mistakenly thought 2nd base was somewhere in the outfield). It was a missile aimed at Tejada with the objective of taking him out by any means necessary. Mission accomplished with the added benefit of a broken leg. Even worse was the way the play was called. Utley never touched the damn base before or after the slide. He never came close to it. It was the worst blown call Ive seen since the umpire robbed Armando Gallaraga of a perfect game back in 2010.
A FAIR punishment it to suspend Utley until Ruben is recovered enough to play ball again.
That’s exactly right. There were probably hundreds of these types of plays this baseball season alone.
Folks are kidding themselves if they think this was way out of the normal for one of them.
Players are taught to break up the double play, and wide latitude is given for players to accomplish that.
It’s an integral part of the game.
Out of literally thousands of these types of plays, hardly anyone ever gets seriously hurt.
As you said, no spikes, following through to prevent the conversion, that’s baseball folks.
The relationship to the bag is somewhat germane, but Utley’s hand did go over the bag. He was not out of the base path.
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LOL- so they suspend him the two games being played in NY and now Utley won’t play in front of the Citifield crowd. Sounds like they did him a favor more than suspended him...BS
This relieves the tension while play is going on in New York. Just play ball.
And to break up the double play. That’s what you’re supposed to do. Utley did nothing wrong.
Does anyone have a sensible explanation why, after they saw Tejada didn’t touch second base, they decided to call Utley safe at second base even though Utley seemed to go out of the basepath to take out Tejada AND Utley never touched second base? The explanation given to the TV commentators relayed to the listening audience didn’t make any sense to me.
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