Why Chase Utley's takeout slide was dirty

[DCPatriot]

Why Chase Utley's takeout slide was dirty
David Schoenfield

Sure, the Chase Utley slide that broke Ruben Tejada's leg was within the boundaries of what we see in baseball, but it was a malicious play that needs to be taken out of the sport.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkRHdO_cNr8

This is the reward you reap as an industry. Chase Utley's "slide" that sent Ruben Tejada out on a stretcher with a fractured fibula in the seventh inning of Game 2 of the New York Mets-Los Angeles Dodgers Division Series was within the boundaries of how the game is played and called by the umpires but also clearly dirty and malicious. Just a few weeks ago, everybody fell all over themselves saying that Chris Coghlan's slide that sent Jung Ho Kang to the sidelines for the season wasn't dirty. So this is what baseball deserves for letting this nonsense linger 45 years after Pete Rose destroyed Ray Fosse, 38 years after Hal McRae crushed Willie Randolph and just a couple of years after they actually did move to protect catchers in home-plate collisions: A stinking heap of controversy, angry baseball fans across the country, casual fans turned off by obvious rules lunacy and a crucial playoff game that turned because baseball has been too gutless to call this the right way.

Look, there was a time when this is how baseball was played, when John McGraw and the famous Baltimore Orioles of the 1890s played baseball with spikes up, looking to draw blood whenever possible. Of course, it also was a time when players would frequently fight umpires or even jump into the stands and brawl with spectators. The remnants of those times still exist today, whether it's that eye-for-eye mentality in intentionally throwing at batters or runners sliding viciously into middle infielders at second base, even if they're several feet off the bag, several feet past the bag or barreling in more like Kam Chancellor on a running back than a baserunner sliding into a bag.

more with video at:  http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/64132/the-slide-that-ruined-everybodys-night-except-the-dodgers

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[famousdayandyear]

My lord, that was a vicious deliberate takeout.  Thx for the video.

[truth_seeker]

Fans demand blood and excitement. Here is another headline grabbing news item.

If they want stuff like this to end, simply have a ruling that the Commissioner can suspend players for a year without pay.

Do that in all of these sports. Football thugs that clobber their girls, no pay for a year on the very first offense, period, no appeal. Second offense banned from the sport for life.

Baseball could lead the way.

But the fans will be left without their blood and excitement, and won't be entertained sufficiently.

Now back to the food fight, here.

[Scottftlc]

Yes it was a deliberate break up of a double play throw and the slide was late (high in vernacular).  This is why the middle infielders get up in the air and don't turn their backs to the oncoming runner.  The very poor feed from Murphy (the 2B) caused Tejada to still be planted and turning, trying to make an ill-advised throw, and not seeing the runner coming.  It is not uncommon to try to take out the throw by getting the guy at the bag in the air - that's hardball.  Utley was late - a step late - in starting his slide, so his intent was obvious and he wasn't even feigning toward the bag.  I think a short suspension might be order but nothing more than that...and certainly that play should not be taken out of baseball by rule.

[sinkspur]

Yes it was a deliberate break up of a double play throw and the slide was late (high in vernacular).  This is why the middle infielders get up in the air and don't turn their backs to the oncoming runner.  The very poor feed from Murphy (the 2B) caused Tejada to still be planted and turning, trying to make an ill-advised throw, and not seeing the runner coming.  It is not uncommon to try to take out the throw by getting the guy at the bag in the air - that's hardball.  Utley was late - a step late - in starting his slide, so his intent was obvious and he wasn't even feigning toward the bag.  I think a short suspension might be order but nothing more than that...and certainly that play should not be taken out of baseball by rule.

Suspension?  For what?  That's the way the game is played.  Take-outs at 2nd base are an accepted part of the game, and suspending Utley for something that's entirely within the rules is ludicrous.

So let's rule out sliding at 2nd base so that the runner can just knock the defender off the base by going in standing up. Think that won't cause any injuries?  Breaking up a double play has been part of baseball since its inception. 

[sinkspur]

Watching the replay again, neither player touched 2nd base.  Pretty sure you can't be safe if you never touch the base.

[Scottftlc]

The suspension that I could see, if there is one, would be for the blatant lateness of the slide. If there is one that will be the reason.  It was the tortured logic of replay that had him safe - and before replay he wouldn't have been.  They ruled that because he was wrongly called out on the field (no tag, no force), that he got up and ran off the field instead of running to the bag (as he would have had he not been called out). So they assumed that had the call been correct, he would have gone back to the base.  It is tortured - something that never happened was assumed - and replay could allow for such "logic."

[sinkspur]

Well, Joe Torre, head of MLB Baseball Operations, suspended Utley for two games.

MLB is following the NFL into athletic pussydom.  It was a legitimate play, no rules were broken, yet we have to respond to the hysterics on social media and make the Dodgers park Utley for two games.

You don't like the rule, Joe?  Change it. But don't punish a guy who's within the rules.

[Scottftlc]

He will appeal - and be able to construct a pretty good case with precedents on video.  I doubt he serves during this series...and may not at all. In the off-season they will address all this about high slides (late slides), so next year might be when you see pussyfication occur.  We can't stomach much in America any longer.

[sinkspur]

He will appeal - and be able to construct a pretty good case with precedents on video.  I doubt he serves during this series...and may not at all. In the off-season they will address all this about high slides (late slides), so next year might be when you see pussyfication occur.  We can't stomach much in America any longer.

You're right.  That's what Harold Reynolds said on the Rangers-Toronto broadcast.  Utley's been involved in some controversial slides and got no suspensions.   So he won't serve any now.

[geronl]

He was not sliding toward the base.

[Scottftlc]

Interference was a possible call that neither the umpires or the replay officials made...nor apparently did Collins (the Met's manager) argue for interference.  Given precedent and the tradition of breakup slides in baseball, that may have been the strongest argument.  Given the lateness of the slide and where contact occurred (beyond the bag, toward left center field) that would have been the strongest case - not the "illegal slide" as stated by Torre.  One could see a runner interference call there...but none was made by anyone, nor was that argued by Collins.

[Scottftlc]

And I should add: the play by both Murphy (the 2B) and Tejada was very poorly executed. It was one of those attempts at a gee whiz highlight film play that displayed very poor fundamentals and was desperate.  That double play would not have been turned, even if executed flawlessly. The feed from Murphy was one of those semi-lobs as he ran past the bag - it wasn't sharp or on the mark, it set Tejada up to be bowled over. On Tejada's end, it wasn't missing the toe tap on the bag that was the worst (as everyone seems focused on), it was the plant and ballet pirouette turn to throw that was at best a highly ill-advised grandstand attempt at a miracle throw.  He should have taken the out at second and held the ball, he had no chance to make such a late, off-balance twist and throw. He would as likely thrown it into the stands as gotten it within range of the first-baseman, and by the time it got there the runner would have been three steps past first base.