Pitchers in no-win situation

would get “plunked in the butt more than once.”

“I still remember it,” Collins said when asked about the gruesome play that left Tejada writhing on the ground in pain. “One thing about that series I remember, yeah. But you gotta move on, you gotta move forward.”

But there are people in the Mets clubhouse who are not ready to move on. There are some players who still feel hot about the play that they consider dirty and not a first-time offense for Utley.

But is it worth it to go after him? If they do, they face the possibility of being suspended or, even worse, getting injured in an escalated situation.

“That was brought up,” Collins said of the talk about retaliation. “Look, what happened happened. We won the series, let’s not get anybody hurt, including our guys.

“But there is only so much control you can have,” Collins said. “We’ll just see if we can get through this.”

The league instead tried to control this by adjusting the rules. While the changes that are supposed to protect middle infielders are called the Utley Rules, there was an outcry to protect middle infielders long before last year’s NLDS, when Pirates infielder Jung-ho Kang was injured on a similar play.

The new rules made it clear that players are supposed to slide before and at the bag. The league made neighborhood plays at second base reviewable.

But in practice nothing has really been settled.

“I am not sure how much it’s changed,” Collins said. “The biggest thing is you gotta slide before the base, but you are still going to see guys dumped at second base.”

As of Tuesday, a league source said the league knew coming into this season that these rule clarifications would take time to understand. It has been sending out updates on how the plays have been interpreted and so far is happy with how players have adapted.

“We know it’s a transitional period, and in that context the new rule is going pretty smoothly so far,” the league source said. “Some players have made aggressive but clean slides, and others who were involved in the headline-grabbing plays early in the year have adjusted well to the goal of the rule.”

While that is all well and good, the Mets were still left with the decision whether winning that playoff series was the best revenge.