It’s time for the ‘Chase Utley rule’
NEW YORK It’s amazing how often baseball gets lucky. Now, the game has a chance to turn a bad incident into a good rule change — one that’s at least a century overdue.
Finally, the vicious late takeout slide, which has put both infielders and baserunners themselves at unnecessary risk for 150 years, can get its rightful burial if MLB and its players can agree on a new rule, as yet to be determined, that can turn the current mayhem at second base into tough but clean play.
Whom should we thank? A hint: It’ll be called the Chase Utley rule.
Utley’s slide that snapped Ruben Tejada’s leg like a stick on Saturday in Los Angeles was a dirty play to my eye, both the first time I saw it and the 20th. But the definition of dirty can be debated to eternity. Cal Ripken, who worked the game for TBS, thought the slide was within the definition of “hard play.”
Utley is suspended and will appeal. No appeal was heard Monday, making Utley eligible to play in Game 3. He was not, however, in the Dodgers’ starting lineup.
On Sunday night, MLB suspended Utley for two games but did so with an accompanying statement by Joe Torre, MLB’s chief baseball officer, which did everything except give Utley a hug and say, “Sorry to pick on you, Chase, after your fine career, but everybody’s doing it and we have to draw the line.”
Utley’s obliteration of the defenceless Tejada, whose back was turned, was merely the fourth-dirtiest double-play takeout slide in the first week of the baseball playoffs. Utley deserved his discipline, but for fairness, we also should see him in context.
Mike Napoli and Rougned Odor of Texas, and Josh Donaldson of Toronto all tried to blow up pivot men with late hit-the-infielder- before-your-butt-hits-the-ground roll blocks that could have broken opponents’ legs or their own skulls.
Donaldson, the potential A.L. MVP, actually did knock himself out of the game when he took a knee to the forehead.
Torre has mentioned that MLB will speak with its union about rule changes. Here’s perhaps the simplest and most obvious starting point: The runner must not only slide so that he can touch the base as he passes it (as currently stipulated) but he must also hit the ground before he touches his foe.
If MLB wants to go farther and rewrite its rules so that the runner must hit the ground a yard before the base, then go for it. You can still do damage and induce fear — but not at the current level of mayhem. Make the play reviewable and rule the batter out, too, for a completed double-play, to deter sinners.
The double-play takeout slide, which endangers the brave hellbent sliders themselves, can finally have the rule that it has needed.