I think it would be nuts to suspend Seager for Utley’s actions.
But it’s even more insane to suggest that Tejada did anything wrong.
hur hur hur
If I cross a busy street without looking both ways and a car hits me, the driver may be to blame if he wasn’t following the speed limit, but I’m also stupid for not taking the necessary precautions needed to protect myself.
It’s not a perfect analogy, I admit, but every second baseman worth their salt knows that you don’t turn your back on the runner in that situation. You go for the sure out at second, then get the hell out of the way.
Shall we start taking bets on who the first person ejected from Game #3 is, and in what inning? Because you know the Mets are going to be throwing at the Dodgers. Seager is a target, and Utley might as well dress in a suit of armor if he takes the field.
My bet is warnings to both benches before the first pitch, and the Mets pitcher gets ejected by the second inning.
I’ll be amazed if there isn’t a bench clearing brawl, perhaps multiple ones. I expect it to come from a reliever later in the game though. Mets aren’t going to risk losing Harvey in the 2nd inning.
I do wonder - if the slide was so dirty, why no show of emotions from ANY Met player on the field at the time, nor their manager (who actually said the umps did a great job) even though their player was steamrolled. Makes me think that maybe they all understood at the time that this is how the game is played. All of their barking started after they were in the clubhouse, having just lost the game.
I’m fine with them revisiting the rules, but I’m also still miffed that the game of baseball was fundamentally changed because Buster Posey didn’t block the plate correctly and broke his leg as a result. The way things are going, the sport is going to get to the point to where they use a beanbag instead of a ball so that nobody gets hurt.
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Do we need to revisit the rules every time a player gets hurt? Or do we have to, at some point, realize that these are professional athletes playing at their hardest and players are going to get hurt from time to time? Nobody ever wants to see anyone get hurt but it happens - more so during the fog of war when an important game is on the line. I’m fine with them studying the situation and seeing if there are reasonable ways to keep players safer, but I’m not in favor of anything that fundamentally changes the game, and hard slides have been a part of this game for a very, very long time. They are so ingrained in the game that a player would probably be benched for not doing what Utley did - attempt to break up a double play when the game is on the line. YMMV
I think that all we need to do is set and enforce rules that recognize the structure of the game.
The aim of a baserunner is to reach base. That’s the fundamental thing that he is trying to do when he runs. If, in the process of attempting to achieve his primary goal, he is also able to disrupt the efforts of the fielder to turn a double-play, i think that’s fair game.
But we should write and enforce a rule whereby, if the baserunner clearly and unequivocally abandons his primary goal (getting on base) in order to take out a fielder, then it’s interference and he and guy running to first base are both called out.
As with many rules, there will probably be marginal cases where you can argue the toss, but i’ve watched last night’s play at least a dozen times now, and there’s no way you will ever convince me that Utley ever even contemplated touching the base. He missed it by the proverbial country mile.
If the half-inch by which Tejada missed the bag is sufficient to call Utley safe, then the much larger margin by which Utley missed the bag should be sufficient to call interference.
To be honest, i’d actually be happy if they made a rule that codified the width of an allowable slide. After all, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and if you watch players who are actually trying to get to the bag before a force, they nearly always slide directly to the bag, without making a wide slide or throwing their body wide of the bag. About the only exceptions are when a runner is trying to avoid a tag, and he slides to one side of the bag because he sees that the fielder has been pulled to the other side by the throw.
I think that they could perfectly reasonably say that, for force plays at second (and third as well), the runner’s body must remain wholly within a lane that runs three feet either side of the bag. I think they should also call interference on any runner who changes direction as he approaches the bag with the obvious intent of taking out the fielder.
An example of what i mean by that is this play from a few years back. I’ve placed a short video in my Dropbox account that you can watch.
It’s a 5-4-3 double-play turned by Boston against Kansas City in 2010. It’s a bit hard to see exactly what happens at second base during the first, full-speed run of the video; you have to watch the two slow-motion replay angles to really see what happens. The last shot, in particular, shows what i mean.
David DeJesus creates a basepath that is well outside the line of the bases. Then, when he sees he is going to be out, he dramatically changes direction, and his slide clearly has absolutely no intention other than to take out Dustin Pedroia, well off the bag. DeJesus makes a lame attempt to reach back for the bag, but even if his hand actually touches the bag, there’s no way that touching the bag was the main purpose of his slide.
Anyway, judge for yourself. Pedroia did incredibly well to turn the play.
Agreed on all points.
Deliberate collisions with another player (or threatening a player with such) are not a “fundamental part of the game.” Fundamental parts of baseball are pitching, hitting, running, and throwing. Collisions are a fundamental part of football and hockey, not baseball.
I don’t have a problem with a player coming hard into a base if his primary intention is to get to the base. If he breaks up the double play, all well and good, but that’s a bonus. If his primary intention is merely to break up the play, I think it’s clearly interference.
Regardless of how the umpires interpreted the play, I think plays like what Utley did should be considered interference. That has nothing to do with the fact that Tejada was injured.
I’m sorry but this is false. Up until they changed the rules in 2014, steamrolling a catcher with everything you had was a perfectly accepted part of the game. Let’s not be revisionists here. Every catcher who played the game before Posey got hurt would disagree with you.
You mistake “an accepted part of the game” with “a fundamental part of the game.” At one time spitballs and sharpening your spikes to inflict injuries on other players were an accepted part of the game. The game was not changed fundamentally by eliminating them.
Neither has the game been changed “fundamentally” by eliminating steamrolling a catcher. And neither would eliminating bullshit like what Utley did.
Fine, if you want to argue semantics. But realistically the game has changed considerably by the elimination of home plate collisions, as it will if we eliminate breaking up a double play. And the sad part is, had Posey or Tejada not been careless and taken the proper precautions, neither injury would have likely occurred.
The difference between “accepted” and “fundamental” isn’t semantics, it’s fundamental.
I doubt very much that the average fan has had their enjoyment of the game lessened significantly by restriction of home plate collisions (and I note that the rule change didn’t eliminate home plate collisions, it only required the catcher to have the ball in his possession in order to block the plate, and prohibited the baserunner to run outside the base path in order to collide with the catcher - both of which changes make perfect sense). I think a lot more fans had their enjoyment lessened when one of the players on their team (whether catcher or runner) was injured on such a play.
Whether or not you try to blame the injured player for getting injured, such injuries I think take away from the enjoyment of the game for everyone. And these plays have the potential for causing injury even if the defensive player was taking precautions. As some Dodger fans have said here, they would have preferred not to have won the game in such a way. When these kind of plays result in injury they leave a bad taste in the mouth for fans of both teams. I don’t think tightening up the rule on breaking up a double play would significantly change most fans appreciation of the game.
I think the runner should be required to slide into the base as if he was trying to steal it and not barrel roll into it in order to upset the fielder. Sure, it’s been done for ages but the risk of injury is too great. If the umpire determines that your slide was intended to take out the fielder, the out at first should count regardless of what happens and the offending player should be ejected.
Point taken. 
Well, if nothing else, I’m not alone in my thinking. Here’s what Joe Madden and Craig Biggio had to say today…
Biggio:
Maddon:
I’m a Dodger fan and I hate to see anyone get injured, but I expect players to try to break up a double play and I expect them to play hard in the postseason. If you take away every play that “has the potential to injure someone”, you are going to be left with a shell of the former game. And, while I don’t speak for “most fans”, I can say without doubt that it would most certainly change my appreciation of the game, much like the Posey rule changed the game. I’m all for making the game as safe as humanly possible for kids and teenagers, but a Major Leaguer? They didn’t sign up to play table tennis; there are dangers - both to the players and fans alike.
Straw man. No one has said that, or anything remotely like that.
And again, I’m not saying that players shouldn’t play aggressively, nor that they shouldn’t try to break up a double play. But going after the fielder in preference to trying to get to the base (as Utley was) should be called as interference. And injuries aren’t the only issue. Doing that just seems unsportsmanlike to me.
The blankety blank blanks have the Astros - Royals scheduled for a noon start tomorrow? It’s a blanking elimination game! What the blankety?!?! Is MLB TV scheduling run by complete morons or just total ones? Do they not realize people have to effin work!! 13 letter cuss word!
There are four games scheduled. *Somebody *has to play a day game.
And don’t forget that it used to always be day games in the World Series.
Nice one Astros!