Time to get rid of the takeout slide at second base

[smackababy]

Baseball is funny in that it's generally a non-contact sport but there are these one off situations where contact has been allowed and the players took it to comic lengths.

Noted racist shitbag Ty Cobb "sliding" into home plate:

It's hilarious to me that this shit is called "playing hard" and "playing the right way". What a joke. Nobody ever says those things when players put their own bodies on the line (full extension dive, etc.) only when they take a cheap shot. It's just cheating.

Ty Cobb is literally the Hitler of sportsmanship. He was such a huge fucking asshole he wouldn't be tolerated on an NFL team these days, and that is saying something. He is such a bad example of using a rule to exploit the effectiveness.

Baseball has cleaned up most of the really dangerous rules like spit balls and scuffing the ball.

I don't see baseball really cleaning up this rule, as only extreme examples will be flagged anyway. Baseball already wants more scores and more exciting games. They don't enforce already existing rules to speed the game up (to it's detriment) and even if there are new rules that hamstring how a runner can slide (or attempt to avoid possible contact with a tagger), it is going to make more low scoring games and clean up the very few injuries that happen from this.

 

[Brian Stirling]

This is why wusses shouldn't have the right to make a decision about anything other than themselves.

This has been part of baseball, its a tactic that has been used, and players anticipate it. Its a tactic to keep runners from getting doubled up as easily. If you slide at the 2nd baseman, that increases the likelihood he'll make an error when throwing to get the runner at first base out, or at least slow him down enough to give the runner and opportunity to beat the throw. Every time someone gets hurt with a slide, its boo hoo *snivels* what a mean rule! These star players are paid millions of dollars a year, and the guy hit with the slide is getting a free vacation, with pay.

You need to walk out into traffic or something! This brain dead joy screwballs like you have when a player is taken out and maybe permanently is sickening and one of the worst aspects of human nature. A similar bunch of nut jobs say similar things about dirty plays in Football. You must have been dropped on your head as a child -- and liked it!


Brian

 

[sao123]

I agree the rules need to be changed.
I didnt like it when the cubs took out Jung Ho kang... I dont like it now.

 

[Slew Foot]

lol, no one cared when jung-ho kang got cleaned out on a cheaper ass slide, or Scutaro on the Giants a couple years back, but some guy from NY gets hurt and all of a sudden its worse than ISIS bombing the white house.

 

[Blackjack200]

lol, no one cared when jung-ho kang got cleaned out on a cheaper ass slide, or Scutaro on the Giants a couple years back, but some guy from NY gets hurt and all of a sudden its worse than ISIS bombing the white house.

The Mets are from New York like the Clippers are from LA.

 

[cubby1223]

No shit sherlock. But there's no reason to allow a player to deliberately interfere with another player outside of tradition. Would you allow a pitcher to clothesline a runner rounding third? Why not? He was merely running to back up the play at third base. And by clotheslining the runner, it increases the likelyhood they can get him out at the plate.

Wrong. If a baserunner is within the basepath and makes contact with a defender who is neither in possession of the ball nor currently attempting to field the ball, the runner is automatically awarded the next base. It's already covered in the rules.

 

[cubby1223]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/p...at-ruined-everybodys-night-except-the-dodgers

Garbage play from a garbage player. It's fucking lunacy that this is still tolerated, but I bet that changes next year. Sucks for Tejada and the Mets that this is what it takes though.

Ummm, this has been a part of the rulebook for countless numbers of years. What would you suggest be altered to the rules?


Rule 5.09(a)(13) Comment (Rule 6.05(m) Comment ): The
objective of this rule is to penalize the offensive team for deliberate,
unwarranted, unsportsmanlike action by the runner in
leaving the baseline for the obvious purpose of crashing the
pivot man on a double play, rather than trying to reach the base.
Obviously this is an umpire’s judgment play.

 

[cubby1223]

You also have the friendly "neighborhood play" which helps protect middle-infielders against hard slides.

If you want a rule-change, please do be specific on what change you want. And remember, rules do not prevent the breakage of rules, they only define a set of actions to be taken once a rule has been broken.

 

[cubby1223]

Baseball just needs to eliminate the slide altogether. Remember when the Cubs also took out star St. Louis catcher Molina near the end of the season:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B16DbOtjX7M

Fans need to be banned too, dangerous to the guys on the field:
http://chicagoist.com/2012/09/19/the_friday_flashback_the_night_the.php

Not to mention all the times fans have screwed up who continues in the postseason:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVNlvnsQ828

And on that same subject, umpires probably also need be banned from the game:
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/0/v13062921/-85-ws-gm-6-stl-kc-denkinger-misses-the-call

 

[rh71]

lol, no one cared when jung-ho kang got cleaned out on a cheaper ass slide, or Scutaro on the Giants a couple years back, but some guy from NY gets hurt and all of a sudden its worse than ISIS bombing the white house.

Lol who else sees the irony in his username? A slew foot is a bush league play anywhere.

 

[edro]

Wow, Chase is a piece of trash. What a cheap shot.
He didn't even attempt to slide into 2nd.
Who slides into 2nd with their entire body and momentum that far outside of 2nd?
A punk who gets off on cheap shots...

Those umpires are retarded.

I can't wait for Chase's next few at bats.

 

[edro]

Wrong. If a baserunner is within the basepath

He looked well outside the base path to me... but I don't know how far the base path officially extends.
I thought it was ~3'.

 

[dainthomas]

As the article pointed out, so were collisions at the plate, cleating guys, and fighing umpires. Times change.



No shit sherlock. But there's no reason to allow a player to deliberately interfere with another player outside of tradition. Would you allow a pitcher to clothesline a runner rounding third? Why not? He was merely running to back up the play at third base. And by clotheslining the runner, it increases the likelyhood they can get him out at the plate.



It is the Mets fan who are punished here, losing one of their important players to a rule that's straight out of 1890.

Like baseball needs to be MORE subjective. How do you decide what's a takeout slide or if the baseman was just standing in a bad spot? If he doesn't want to get taken out, then he can move or jump.

Nothing will change regarding this. Guaranteed.

 

[DrunkenSano]

If slides like that are allowed, then the shortstop or second basemen should be able to kick the slider in the face in defense. That will make runners think twice before trying to purposely injure others.

I hope Chase gets beaned in the face every time he's at bat.

 

[Red Storm]

As someone who does not follow or watch baseball, that "slide" definitely looked like it should be illegal, he was obviously aiming for the player and not just 2nd base.

 

[cubby1223]

He looked well outside the base path to me... but I don't know how far the base path officially extends.
I thought it was ~3'.

That response there was to a different situation posed by another user, not to the main subject of this thread.

 

[cubby1223]

As someone who does not follow or watch baseball, that "slide" definitely looked like it should be illegal, he was obviously aiming for the player and not just 2nd base.

There already is a rule on the books that an umpire can use his judgment and declare it illegal, which is why they are able to hand down a punishment like they did.

 

[Blackjack200]

He looked well outside the base path to me... but I don't know how far the base path officially extends.
I thought it was ~3'.

Players can slide to the side of a base to try to avoid a tag. It's fairly common. Doesn't mean that you should be able to slide to the side of a base to interfere with the play.

Like baseball needs to be MORE subjective. How do you decide what's a takeout slide or if the baseman was just standing in a bad spot? If he doesn't want to get taken out, then he can move or jump.

Nothing will change regarding this. Guaranteed.

It's breathtakingly simple. Did the player slide into the base, or not? I've been playing baseball or softball for almost 30 years. I have never missed a base I was attempting to slide into.

There already is a rule on the books that an umpire can use his judgment and declare it illegal, which is why they are able to hand down a punishment like they did.

Totally agree, it's just not called. Like the 5 yard contact in the NFL that went uncalled for years, until they started calling it.

Utley's suspension is a tacit change in the way rules are called since those slides have never been penalized in the past. I actually think it's unfair to Chase to be suspended since, as others have mentioned in this thread, similar slides have gone unpunished.

 

[3chordcharlie]

You also have the friendly "neighborhood play" which helps protect middle-infielders against hard slides.

If you want a rule-change, please do be specific on what change you want. And remember, rules do not prevent the breakage of rules, they only define a set of actions to be taken once a rule has been broken.

sadly this was one of the casualties of instant replay. It should be non-reviewable on double plays.

 

[Blackjack200]

If they get rid of take out slides they should also get rid of the neighborhood play.

 

[cubby1223]

Totally agree, it's just not called.

It is called on ocassion. It's a rare situation, you can watch a dozen games and not see one takeout slide. But umps do call it on very agregious violations of sliding, even without any collision or injury.

What baseball needs is an extra ump at every game sitting at a monitor with direct communication at all times with the umps in the field, so calls can be made correctly and with very minimal delay. It's too difficult to properly determine the close slides in real time, it will require replay. So, how much more time delay can be taken up in these situations?

 

[Blackjack200]

It is called on ocassion. It's a rare situation, you can watch a dozen games and not see one takeout slide. But umps do call it on very agregious violations of sliding, even without any collision or injury.

What baseball needs is an extra ump at every game sitting at a monitor with direct communication at all times with the umps in the field, so calls can be made correctly and with very minimal delay.

I don't think I've ever seen it called.

 

[edro]

Chase was suspended? Good.
I totally missed that.
I thought the umpires called him safe and interference on Tejada.

 

[SP33Demon]

To me there is a diffrence between going into the base hard and going 2 ft outside of it and into someone like he did.

trying to take out and hurt a player in baseball should not be allowed.

Yep, just slide to the base. NOT the player. And it was ok into the player before because runners slid early, not do a barrel roll into them at the last second like Utley did. The argument is that Utley still could have touched the base with his left hand, which is true. But he made zero attempt to touch the base.

 

[Phoenix86]

He looked well outside the base path to me... but I don't know how far the base path officially extends.
I thought it was ~3'.

I doubt he was 3' off the line, and it's OK to slide past the base and tag with your hand.

The change to the rule would have to be a judgement call by the ump. What's your TARGET? The base or the player.

If you ask an ump to make a baseline 3' rule, meh, an argument could be made he was within it.

If you ask an ump what his target was, it's pretty clear. It's like the Ty Cobb pick, he's in the baseline, but his target is obvious.