Buster Olney of ESPN reported last Saturday that officials from the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers expected the topic of banning home plate collisions to be raised at Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings.
That’s a good thing, because the alternative is to allow one of the stupidest rules in sports to continue existing for yet another year.
Collisions bring so little to baseball and cost so much. In last Thursday’s ALCS game five, we saw Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera slam into Red Sox catcher David Ross, then the same Ross bowl into Tigers catcher Alex Avila an inning later.
Both Cabrera and Ross were unsuccessful in dislodging the ball from the catcher’s glove and were out by an average of 10 feet. However, Avila was injured in his collision, suffering a strained patellar tendon in his left knee. Avila went on to play in game six, but was probably not 100 percent when you consider he hit 0-4 with 3 strikeouts.
All the plate collisions did in that game was injure one team’s starter and give two bad baserunners a small chance to redeem their clear blunders.
At some point it became accepted and eventually laudable for catchers—because they happen to be wearing body armor to protect them from foul balls—to use that armor to prevent baserunners from reaching home.
Maybe this would be okay if catchers took pride in taking their hits and holding the ball in the face of a man the size of Cabrera bulldozing them at full sprint, but that is simply not the case.
Consider comments from former Tigers manager and noted curmudgeon Jim Leyland, San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy, and St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny.
All of them are former catchers, all of them are known for managing with an old school mentality, and all of them have publicly stated they want to get rid of collisions.
We can talk about how railroading catchers has always been part of baseball. That doesn’t mean it’s a good part of baseball.
Baseball also used to feature baserunners spiking the Achilles tendon of second basemen, a reserve clause that tied players to teams for the entirety of their careers, and a white players only rule. Baseball’s higher ups got rid of all of these rules, and baseball is obviously better because of it.
When something like collisions hurt the game, it should be removed. And collisions do hurt the game when you think of the health of the three consensus best catchers in baseball, the Giants Buster Posey, Twins Joe Mauer, and Cardinals Yadier Molina.
Posey lost most of his 2011 season to a shattered ankle from a plate collision. Molina suffered an upper back, shoulder and neck strain along with a concussion scare from a 2012 collision.
Mauer is going to have to change positions soon, and it’s due to past injuries, one of which occurred in a 2012 collision, and concussion issues which make the prospect of him getting trucked absolutely terrifying for any Twins fan.
That’s the three best players at their position all having their careers endangered by home plate collision injuries and all in the past three years. How is that even remotely acceptable?
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the damage collisions have caused. If you want a particularly asinine example, go read about the 1970 All-Star game. That’s when hustle legend Pete Rose laid out a hit on Ray Fosse that would make Ray Lewis blush during an exhibition game. Fosse’s promising career was subsequently hampered by shoulder injuries taken from the hit. Rose never apologized and 33 years later, Fosse is still bitter.
Sure, slamming into the catcher can be entertaining, but if it’s one of the reasons one watches baseball, I’ve got some good news. Football exists, it’s got plenty of collisions and it’s played every weekend during the fall and winter.
Do you think collisions at home plate should be eliminated from baseball? Let Jack know what you think by emailing sports@dailycardinal.com.
