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Baltimore Orioles: Play safe and play hard

By Domenic A. Vadala

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Finally…a discussion about the rules (written or otherwise) which doesn’t involve the Baltimore Orioles. We all saw Chase Utley‘s takeout slide of Ruben Tejada in Saturday night’s NLDS game between New York and Los Angeles. For starters, you never want to see anyone get hurt. So best wishes for a speedy recovery to Tejada.

However I found myself conflicted in the aftermath of the incident. Most of public opinion seems to squarely say that it was a dirty play on Utley’s part. The fact that Utley’s been suspended for two games (which is being appealed) after the fact backs that up. And here’s the thing; it just might have been. It goes without saying that Utley probably wasn’t trying to break Tejada’s leg or injure him in a severe manner. To my knowledge there’s no history between the two.

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    • A runner who interferes with a fielder as such is supposed to be out. However keep in mind that what’s deemed to be interference is really a judgement call. The general rule of thumb is that at least one part of the runner’s body has to be in line to touch the bag straight on. If you watch the video of the play, Utley’s slide fits that rule.

    So that leaves me to believe that the only reason there’s such an outrage about this is because Tejada was seriously injured. And there’s no doubt that makes a difference. Again, nobody (least of all me) wants to see someone seriously injured. We’re talking about these guys’ livelihoods. But with that said, is it really fair to rush to judgement on a situation simply because someone was hurt?

    Courtesy of Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

    Utley executed what’s simply called a hard takeout slide. Buck Showalter preaches this exact same tactic to his Orioles. In fact, let’s take this a step further. If you watch the play, Utley slides in with his feet underneath him – if anything, this could be seen as an act of respect for an opponent. You’re not supposed to slide with your studs up, so in fact that could have been done so as to execute the hard slide but not to injure. 

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    The reality of course is that Tejada was in fact hurt on the play. According to MLB, the reason that Utley was suspended is because they deemed the slide to have been late. So…are we now saying that timing is something worth judging also?

    I suspect that at some point this off season, we’re going to see the rules changed or tweaked to protect middle infielders from things like this. Now there will be those of you out there reading this who will say how is keeping players safe a bad thing? And I get that without a doubt. Of course they want to keep players safe, just as the NFL wants to protect it’s players from concussions and so forth.

    However baseball has gone on all the way to this point without special rules protecting middle infielders. Yes folks, I’m invoking the but it’s always been this way argument. Some of you will say that’s weak. Some will argue hey [insert public policy] used to be a thing also and it had always been that way to that point. I get it folks – things change.

    But that’s not to say that they should – not always, at least. But what exactly can MLB do if they wanted to make a change? More on that tomorrow.

    Next: Baltimore Orioles: What's a post-season mentality

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