REDUCING INJURIES AT HOME PLATE. Buster Posey, Sn Francisco’s young star catcher, is out for the year with a broken leg. It happened while he was blocking the plate, as catchers are expected to do. (For those of you are not fans, it may seem bizarre, but a catcher trying to tag a runner out at home plate is expected to block the plate with his body so that the runner is delayed in getting to the plate.) Blocking the plate creates a lot of collisions, which are exciting and dangerous. Players are injured and careers are ended. This article by Jeff Passan reports that San Francisco’s manager has asked baseball to look into changing the rules to reduce injuries on plays at the plate. Passan disagrees. He says: “Baseball should live for these situations, not bemoan them….Taking away … danger isn’t as much wussifying the game as it is devaluing a run.”
I have always favored trying to reduce the dangers in baseball. In this post,. I argued for a rule change on the grounds that “if the new rule prevents one serious injury a year, it would be worth it.” Nick commented on that post: “If you want hard contact go watch the UFC and football. Baseball is supposed to be about skill.”
The only arguments people seem to be able to muster, when it really comes down to it, are:
1. How else would we do it?
2. It’s exciting!
I don’t find it exciting at all. Part of baseball is that it isn’t about any one single play, but it’s the cumulative value over the course of an incredibly long season.
Further, if you need to physically stop a runner from touching the bag in order to get him out because the ball isn’t there in time, then he clearly deserves to score.
Pingback: NEW SUPPORT FOR REDUCING BASEBALL COLLISIONS | Pater Familias
Pingback: ADOPTING COLLEGE RULES ON BASEBALL COLLISIONS. | Pater Familias
Pingback: REFORM—REDUCING COLLISIONS AT HOME PLATE. | Pater Familias