Tejada in spring of 2010
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 ...
Thanks for posting that link, FreeReign. grrrr gotta get tv again, at least for baseball season
Because player salaries are a huge fraction of the cost of running an MLB team, especially with the big market teams, anything to better protect players in the field would be welcomed by the owners. That's why they effectively banned most types of home plate collisions after the 2011 season, and for the sake of protecting these expensive player investments, they'll modify the second base and third base slide rules so the player MUST aim directly for the base in any slide, most likely starting as early as the 2016 season.
That’s a reasoned argument.
It sure will pussify the game.
the guy with the ability to jump also has the ability to come down.
Only one guy could have the advantage there.
You're right. It's the guy with gravity -- and the entire planet -- on his side. He is accelerating. The baserunner is decelerating. The baserunner has given himself up completely, and needs to get his face stomped in if this kind of lawlessness continues.
This has been a part of the game for over a century.
Nope, it hasn't. A hard slide has been part of the game, not a runner deliberately rolling into another player to cause injury. If Chase Utley wanted to play a full contact sport, he should have become an Ultimate Fighter, Boxer, Football Player, ... he would have gotten his ass handed to him in any of those three. He's a "tough guy" against defenseless players.
Nothing new happened on Saturday.
Sadly, you're right about that. Baseball has been allowing this kind of illegal violence to escalate since the mid-90's. Slides where a cowardly "tough guy" runner leaves the basepath to attack a player should have been stopped two decades ago, when they began.
An accidental break does not change that.
Again, sadly, you're probably right. But I hope that between the owners and Player's Union they decide that misguided "fans" who think this is "baseball" have driven the game away from its traditions far enough, and it's time to sanction illegal behavior.
Rubbish. Men who deliberately attack other players outside of the rules of the game aren't being "tough guys," they're being p*ssies. This false masculinity you believe in has nothing to do with genuine manliness.
If you want to watch a full contact sport where players are trained and prepared for violence, go watch that game, and stop spouting your fake "machismo" nonsense here.
But I should warn you, since you don't seem to know [or at any rate understand] the rules very well: Football doesn't allow rolling blocks or leg whips either.
He wasn’t sliding before the bag and targeted at the bag, thus, he was wrong.
Even coming down two to three feet won’t build up the energy of a guy running full speed ahead for 90 feet. That energy will discharge somewhere. Don’t get the idea the only person with cleats is the fielder.
Honestly Fred, you are displaying a misconception of the sport as it relates to taking the fielder out of the play at second base. Sliding, rolling, or whatever has been a part of the game there. You could safely say a number of things have taken place at second base over the years.
Defenseless players? This is utter nonsense. One minute you’re telling me the fielder at second base has all the power, and now you’re describing him as defenseless. Face stomped? Wow.
Fred, this slide was nowhere near as vicious as some plays at second base.
Thanks for your comments.
Fred, you’re ignorant of the game. We both know it. What you’re saying left relevancy quite a ways back.
Look at your post. You’re freaking out over a common practice.
Get a grip.
Look at that one photo up thread where his hand is over the bag, his knee is in the dirt, and his shoulder is already into the fielder.
This all happening right at the big, the runner was not out of line.
Five feet behind the bag, sure. At the bag, you folks are grasping at straws.
FWIW...
Here's what I said...
I've seen a thousand plays just like that...And they didn't end in injury.
I never questioned the call...
I like smoked baloney..now and again. : )
He's defenseless now because he isn't trained to make the runner pay the price. As for the rest of your nonsense, a sliding runner isn't "running" at full speed. The whole point of a legal slide is to slow down. Finally, I will point out to you, since you seem to be ignorant of the facts of basic physics, people are killed by skull fractures falling distances of three feet. Don't believe for a minute that once properly trained in retaliation that infielders are going to be defenseless any more.
Which is why you've been schooled in how umpires can put a stop to this, and apparently thought an infielder had to be interfered with in the process of literally fielding a ball in order for a two-out award.
We both know it.
Like most of the things you think you "know" it's hogwash. What we both know is that you're rationalizing an illegal play because it benefited your team. MLB knows the rules at least as well as I do, and apparently much better than you, and guess who's position MLB agrees with? [Hint: Not yours.]
What you’re saying left relevancy quite a ways back.
Says the guy who's arguing with the league that actually makes the rules. If Utley's illegal slide is "irrelevant" why will he be gathering splinters as a result? [Other than because he's a washed up bum with a negative WAR.]
Fred, move away from the keyboard before you get hurt...
People have been playing the infield for over a hundred years, and you think they need to be trained how to defend themselves? Every one of them was less informed on the subject than you are?
Well, thanks for you responses.
This is how the game is played. Nobody is forcing infielders to play. They actually want to, and they aren’t going on strike due to those mean old base runners.
Chase Utley has a well-documented history of playing very aggressively against the team he hates, the New York Mets, especially from his days playing for the Philadelphia Phillies. In short, that aggressiveness finally caught up to him.
Tejada in spring of 2010 The ball was already "fielded" by Tejada, so Utley didn't interfere with the his ability to field the ball. I think everyone is upset that it broke his leg. No one cares that Utley got kicked in the cup :-)
Joe Torre thought it was deliberate. We’ll see how the appeal goes. In any case, it’s not always allowed to break up a double play.
Okie doke. I’ve seen worse slides that never got anyone suspended but that was 20 years ago :-)
Language
CUBBIES!!!
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