The Posey Rules

The problem is when he doesn't have the ball and is waiting for it to arrive so he can't brace for the hit. I don't know exactly what the rule would be; if not the college collision rule, then maybe say the catcher can't block the plate until he has the ball. I don't know. But what if this play resulted in a severe concussion instead of a broken ankle? I think that would create a whole new urgency for MLB to address it.

BTW I read a story today that the Marlins player was teary-eyed today talking to reporters about it. He went to college in S.F. and had dozens of friends and family in the crowd. Tough situation for him.

 

There are about 600 college baseball teams in the country that manage to play 60 games a year without being able to run over the catcher or slide 15 feet out of the way to take out the second baseman/shortstop on a DP.

Yet somehow they are not sissies, or less than tough because those are the rules they play by. If the minor league/MLB umpires actually enforced those rules if they were adopted, the change would easily be accepted in the course of several years because over time they would be the only rules a player knows.

At one time only a few players wore helmets/goalie masks in the NHL. Those who wore helmets/masks were considered sissies. Eventually they changed the rule and made all new players wear helmets. Now everyone does, because that's the rule. And they are safer for it.

Common sense should always trump macho posturing.

 

Mike Scioscia might be a better in-game manager if not for the many home plate collisions he suffered.

 

yeah and a couple hundred college football teams play knowing they can't get up and run if they slip and fall while carrying the ball because that saves injuries. so i guess the nfl should change that rule.

it's not about being macho or tough. it's that the catcher has a full set of equipment and is allowed to block the plate. if the runner had to slide 99% of the time with a major league catcher, the runner is out if the ball beats him.

 

except it's a little different because someone stealing second is often called out when the throw beats him and the tag is made, even if the tag is on the knee and the foot is in. you don't see too many shortstops and second basemen blocking the base and not allowing the runner to get his foot in. just about every play at the plate you see the catcher (well maybe not Posada when he used to catch) blocking the plate and not giving the runner a chance to get there, unless he clearly beats the throw. if he is blocking the plate, the runner can try to knock the ball out of the glove.

 

John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle DID ask Ray Fosse if he thinks the rule should be changed.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/26/SP6J1JM7C5.DTL

And the answer is no:

Fosse pooh-poohed talk of a rule change to protect catchers.

"The game has been around more than 100 years, and now they're going to start protecting catchers?" Fosse asked. "I can't see anything that can be changed. In high school, you can't run over a catcher. But that's high school. This is professional baseball. The idea is to score runs. If the catcher has the ball and he's standing there, the runner has to stop? Is that the protection?

"I can't believe anything can be done, and I don't see how you could regulate something like that."

 

Missing in all of this debate is the nature of the injury -- it was to his ankle/knee, right?

In other words, if Posey's leg had been in a slightly different spot (extended out a bit more so it wouldn't get caught under him) there would have been no serious injury despite the violent collision.

Baseball's certainly not as physical as other sports, but you still have objects moving at high rates of speed and the majority of players wearing little protective gear. So unfortunately, injuries will happen.

 

Common sense says something needs to be changed. What that is, exactly, I don't know.

 

Rule needs to be changed. Sliding should be mandatory as it is in most little leagues. Don't slide - you're out.

 

Actually, common sense says if you don't want to get hit, don't stand in front of the fucking plate.

 

They should change to wiffle ball rules -- throwing the ball between the runner and the plate would be an out. No serious injuries, except for the occasional beaning by an infielder.