Anybody see the play in which the Dodgers’ Chase Utley intentionally body-slammed the Mets’ Ruben Tejada, breaking his leg?
I ask because, you know, all I ever hear anybody talk about is football.
(An interesting indication of how distorted things are: Wondering whether the World Series will still be shown this year on a station I get, I Googled “what network will show the…” and Google immediately tried to autofill the query as “… super bowl.” I continued typing “world,” and Google guessed, “cup.” When you know good and well that Google knows I’m asking from within this country, not someplace where they’re nuts about that other football.)
The “slide,” of course, wasn’t a slide. Utley wasn’t trying to be safe at second; he didn’t even try to touch the base. The shortstop had moved out of his way to make his throw to first, but Utley went for him instead of the bag.
Sacrificing your body — and your opponent’s body — to break up a double play is of course a time-honored part of the game. But there’s such a thing as going too far. Ty Cobb’s allegedly sharpened spikes come to mind.
After “the hit” (something that would no doubt be celebrated to an obscene degree by football fans), Dodgers fans were happy. The hit won the game, and possibly saved the playoff series, for the Dodgers. But if this L.A. Times’ columnist’s perspective is any guide, there was at least some ambivalence in the City of Angels:
The slide was late. The slide was high. The slide was questionably legal and arguably dirty.
Even if you were watching it through blue-colored glasses, you had to admit that the slide was recklessly dangerous, so much that it broke another man’s leg.
But after 27 years of frustration, the Dodgers will accept reckless, embrace dangerous, and so on Saturday night they uncomfortably celebrated a slide that won a game, altered a series and may have saved a season….
The thing is, within the context of the game, Utley got away with it. The ump not only didn’t penalize him, he called him safe, ruling that Tejada failed to touch the bag before attempting his throw.
But last night, MLB suspended him for the next two games of the series. They managed to find a rule against what he’d done:
“While I sincerely believe that Mr. Utley had no intention of injuring Ruben Tejada, and was attempting to help his club in a critical situation, I believe his slide was in violation of Official Baseball Rule 5.09 (a)(13), which is designed to protect from precisely this type of rolling block that occurs away from the base,” Torre said in a statement…
Good. That restores a bit of order to the universe. Official Baseball Rule 5.09 (a)(13) is a very good rule.
So next time something like this happens, I’m going to yell, “Hey, ya bum! That’s against Official Baseball Rule 5.09 (a)(13)!
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Baseball’s bizarre replay rules only allowed the umps to assess whether Tejada was on the bag or not. They could not, apparently, review Utley’s slide/non-slide/assault.
It’s going to be really interesting tonight in NY when Utley comes to bat against Matt Harvey.
But he won’t. He’s suspended…
Not until his appeal is heard. Which is not supposed to be today.
Oh, I had missed that about the appeal! Interesting…
And I think Utley will be a free agent at the end of the year, so he could sign with another team in the off-season. In that case, the Dodgers wouldn’t even have a suspended player.
Meanwhile, the Mets lose the game AND their shortstop is out for the season.
But now I’m hearing he will play—he is appealing the suspension and the appeal will not be heard until after today, so ESPN is saying that means he is eligible to play until such time as he loses the appeal. So Matt Harvey will be pitching to him tonight. The Mets just need to win, winning is the best revenge. (And I’m looking for revenge for the 1988 NLCS against the Dodgers, for that matter.) But I would not be surprised to see a bench-clearing episode before the end of this series if some other incident occurs, just out of spontaneous emotion.
Utley’s lucky he didn’t get hurt himself on the collision—dropping onto his knees at full speed (to make his tackle instead of a proper slide) and also leading with his right shoulder into Tejada’s hips or upper legs. That doesn’t make it any more excusable, just more stupid.
Yeah, I had the same thought. From a certain angle, you can see Utley’s head snap back violently at the instant of impact.
I don’t think I would have gotten up from that. And at 36, Utley had to feel it…
Unfortunately he doesn’t appear to have felt it near enough.
Mattingly should do the honorable thing and make Utley hit in the leadoff spot.
Note that despite having his leg broken, Tejada didn’t drop the ball. Not that it made any difference, but he toughed it out…
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Chase Utley
Baseball player
Chase Cameron Utley is an American professional baseball second baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball. A native of the Greater Los Angeles area, he grew up in Long Beach, California, and attended UCLA. Wikipedia
Born: December 17, 1978 (age 36), Pasadena, CA
Spouse: Jennifer Cooper (m. 2007)
Current team: Los Angeles Dodgers (#26 / Infielder)
Salary: 2.13 million USD (2015)
Children: Benjamin Cooper Utley, Maxwell Chase Utley
Parents: Dave Utley, Terrell Utley
Profiles
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Google is a strange bird. When you ~google chase utley~ , look at that age and birth date. Gotta get me some of that LA water.
wow — that math is correct. Strike me.
I still think it was the wrong call to call Utley safe. I would have called him out. Just ten to fifteen years ago, the umps would have invoked the unwritten “Neighborhood Rule” and called Utley out.
But nowadays, you got all these new-fangled HD cameras and a silly instant replay regime, so the umps don’t have the leeway they used to have.
Harrumph.
Counselor, is the Neighborhood Rule statutory, or a matter of custom?
I mean, if the rules specifically allow such judgment to be exercised by the umpire, then it shouldn’t matter how many HD instant replays come into play.
There was no doubt that Tejada made the move to touch the base before beginning his spin away from the bag (in his good-faith attempt to get out of the runner’s way) to make his throw. It looked kind of like he was physically pushing off from the bag — until we saw it from another angle…
It’s a well-known unwritten rule that every umpire will deny invoking if asked, despite the fact that everyone knows they routinely do it.
I hate, er, strongly dislike Chase Utley. Not because he played for years in Philly battling my Atlanta Braves, but because he’s Pete Rose without a personality. He’s 36 years old with bad knees. Hopefully this is his last year.
Well, that move certainly had a flavor of Charlie Hustle…