Talking Baseball

What happened to Buster Posey this week is pretty much indicative of the one thing that’s still wrong with baseball. You can argue the designated hitter thing and I’ll admit you have an argument. And maybe you can argue the “phantom second base touch” on the turn of a double play. But when you really get down to it, the “collision at home plate” simply has no place in baseball.
Posey, NL  Rookie of the Year in 2010 and pivotal position player on the World Champion Giants, may now be lost for the year. And why? Because MLB allows a runner heading home to hit the catcher in the same way NFL defensive players are NOT allowed to hit defenseless receivers. And NFL players wear the appropriate protective gear!
What’s wrong with this picture? Plenty! Nowhere else in baseball do you see violent collisions except at home plate. Can you run to first and launch yourself into the first baseman on a routine ground ball play? Can you run to second and try to break up the double play by simply launching yourself head first into the defensive player’s upper body regardless of where he is standing? Do you ever see anyone launch themselves into the third baseman on a play at the bag? No, no and no. Obviously, you don’t want t over run the base or you could find yourself out. But home plate? You can over run it…as long as you touch it first.
The catcher wears protective equipment that is body armour only for the ball. If, during the course of playing the game, there is contact such as running into a wall, running into your own player, leaving your feet and crashing into the ground…then that is part of the inherent “physical play” of the game. But when there is a play at the plate, the runner has every dangerous advantage. He is bearing down at full speed with only one thing on his mind: to prepare his body for impact and pick his contact point with the catcher. The runner has all the momentum moving forward. Now, what’s the catcher doing? Well, first of all, he is trying to watch the ball because he has to catch it. He also has to get into a virtual stationary crouch because he knows he is going to probably get hammered.  His only protection at that point is his chest protector (he’s already discarded his mask/helmet to the side) which is designed to stop a baseball that’s been fouled off.  The catcher’s arms, shoulders, neck and head are completely unprotected. And is the runner going to go low into his shin pads? Of course not. The runner is going to pick the most vulnerable part…the part that will have “give” to it. The upper body of the catcher.
This is precisely what they are banning in Football and Hockey, two true contact sports with the appropriate protective equipment. It’s time for MLB to change the rule. Simply, the catcher is not allowed to block the plate. He can straddle it or stay off to one side in an effort to give the runner the plate on a slide…and the runner must slide. Only this way will we see true “plays at the plate.” Did the throw beat the runner or did the runner simply pummel a defenseless catcher.
I remember Pete Rose essentially ending Ray Fosse’s nice career in a collision at the plate in the All Star Game!!! Angels Manager Mike Scoscia was knocked unconscious by Jack Clark on a vicious hit at the plate.  We’ve all seen the damage done when the runner goes head hunting. It’s time to change the rule. MLB, get your collective heads out of your collective rear-ends and recognize that, no matter how infrequently the collision at the plate happens, once is still too many. If the NFL and NHL can change the nature of violent blindside hits up high…how can MLB not?