BALTIMORE, Maryland December 12, 2013 - Major League Baseball has announced its intention to make collisions at homeplate between catchers and baserunners strictly illegal. Such a rule change must be approved by a majority of owners and the players association.
It is a terrible mistake. While it is true that there have been injuries in such collisions - the All Star Game Collision between Pete Rose and Ray Fosse is the poster boy for the genre, along with the injury to Buster Pose of the Giants - such incidents have been part of the game since it was invented in the middle of the nineteenth century. The rules allow a player who is awaiting a throw to block the base or home plate that a runner is trying to get to.
Like many Americans, I played the game. In fact, for many seasons growing up, I was a catcher. I began playing the position when I was 13. That "Pony" League team had a regular catcher but no back-up. I volunteered. Not long after, the regular catcher was told by doctors that his Osgood–Schlatter Syndrome condition in his knees made it imperative that he sit out a year. Suddenly I was the team's full-time catcher. In one of the first games one of the biggest lads in the league was at third base when a ground ball was hit to an infielder. He threw to me at the plate, where I had taken a position blocking the plate. I took the throw and prepared to get creamed. And did I ever. But I did tag the kid out. The collision sent me flying to the backstop. I opened my eyes to see my father, standing behind the backstop, shouting "way to go, John." He was rarely so vociferous. It was a very proud moment. In another incident the next season, I took a throw when another large lad was baring down on me. I had the throw so early that I had time to plot a second of strategy. I waited until the last second, when the runner couldn't change his intention - which was to hit me hard enough to jar the ball loose - and took a half step out of the baseline while firmly tagging the runner. The umpire saw what I had done, which was take the easy way, and called the runner safe. It was a lesson I never forgot. If you were going to catch, you were going to block the plate, because it was part of the game.
Major League Baseball, on their website, admits that part of the reason for the rule is the emphasis on concussions in all of professional sports. I don't buy it. Despite the obvious chance of injury in such plays, the fact is that such injuries are very very rare. Most of the time runners try to avoid the catcher and tag the plate so that the run can count. Hence, you see hook slides, even "slides" that intentionally miss the plate, with the runner than diving back at the plate before the catcher can collect himself and tag the runner out. The incidents when the runner merely plows into a catcher usually are reserved for situations when (a), the catcher has the throw so early that jarring the ball loose is the only choice; and (b) when the throw and the runner arrive simultaneously and the runner can force the catcher to miss the throw. Runners rarely take the collision listed in (a) unless the run they represent is the tying or winning run. Even in situations like the one represented by choice (b) the runner will often dive past the catcher to get to the plate, with maybe a nudge going by to disrupt the process of catching the throw.
The wording of the rule has not been circulated, only the intention. It will be interesting to see the wording because catchers aren't the only ones blocking bases. Some first basemen block first base when a runner takes a lead off the base and the pitcher throws over trying to pick him off. The block in these situations isn't so obvious, but instead consists of an effort to keep the runners foot from getting to the base. It is perfectly legal under existing rules. Will these measures by made illegal? And some second basemen and shortstops take similar tacts when a runner trys to steal second base and or stretch a single into a double. The fielder trys to keep either the runner's foot or hand - if his is diving head-first - from getting to the base while the tag is being applied.
It seems like MLB people want the public to think the rule change will be a done deal. On the MLB websiite, the change wasn't made a big deal, probably on purpose because they don't want traditionalists to start barking long and loud. Don't think for a minute that money isn't involved. Posey is one of the game's highest paid and most visible players. His loss to the Giants for almost an entire season was a deep financial hit to the team. The Giants not only had to continue paying Posey, but they also had to pay for all of his medical care.
But how often do such injuries occur? Name other "collisions" that cost a team a player for more than a few games. You can't because such collisions are very rare. A homeplate play of tremendous consequence occurred in the 1982 season during a classic pennant race. The Orioles were chasing the Brewers of Harvey's Wallbangers Fame. On a Sunday afternoon the two teams were concluding a series in Milwaukee and the series finale would have a tremendous impact on the race. It was late September. With one out in the bottom of the ninth the Brewers moved a runner to third base, and the batter sent a fly ball to medium deep center field. John Shelby, an outstanding fielder, moved under the ball, then, in classic fielding form, stepped back a few steps so that he could catch the ball moving toward home plate. In one smooth motion Shelby caught the ball and fired a strike to home plate. The courageous Rick Dempsey was in perfect catcher's position, astride the base line a few feet from the plate. The runner merely slid hard into Dempsey, who caught the ball and tagged the Brewer out to preserve the Oriole one-run victory. The Brewer runner never reached the plate. Dempsey made the umpire's job easy. The umpire didn't need to deal with the issue of whether the tag by Dempsey was in time, because his foot never made it to the plate. When he slid under Dempsey, Dempsey held his position and completely blocked the plate. It was text book baseball.
If the rule is necessary, show us statistics that indicate a rash of injuries. Show us concussions. You will not see this, you see, because such injuries are extremely rare. They are confined to end-of-game plays when a single runs means the difference between victory and defeat in a very important game. Baseball is changing the rules to prevent something that virtually never occurs. If the baseball fathers are going to do that, they will next turn to injuries that occur when a pitcher hits a batter. The game is almost perfect. Even the best players are never close to perfect. The best hitters aim to hit .400 over the course of a season, but no one has done it since 1941 when the incomparable Ted Williams accomplished the feat. Williams is thought to be one of the greatest hitters ever. Yet even in his greatest season he made outs nearly 60% of the times he came to bat.
In the history of baseball there are only three player deaths in which in-game injuries are implicated. The most famous occurred in 1920 when All Star Shortstop Ray Chapman was hit in the head with a pitch and died 12 hours later. Baseball made several common sense changes in reaction to the incident, but none of them affected the way the game was played on the field. The first change was to the kinds of things players could permissably do to baseballs in play. These alterations included, almost always, scuffing the ball with dirt, while other "things" included spitting on the ball, cutting the ball with fingernails and spikes, and using hair gel or grease on the ball. The intent was to make the ball more difficult to see, and to affect the balls movements after being released by the pitcher. Witnesses said that Chapman never moved when he was hit by a "submarine" pitch by veteran Yankee hurler Carl Mays. The incident occurred at twilight at the old Polo Grounds in New York, and many speculated that Chapman never actually saw the pitch. A "submarine" pitch - Current Oriole Pitcher Darren O'Day throws them almost exclusively - is a pitch thrown with the throwing arm loosely aimed at the ground. Whereas a typical pitcher throws "overhanded," with his throwing elbow either level with his throwing shoulder, or slightly above it, and his hand and forearm following through above his head, a submarine pitcher's elbow never elevates to shoulder height and the throwing hand stays at belt level or lower. Submarine pitchers are far more effective against batters who hit on the same side of home plate as the pitcher.
Baseball also, eventually, required hitters, and later base runners and base coaches, to wear helmets. One of the other two deaths occurred when minor league first base coach Mike Coolbaugh was hit in the neck by a batted ball, severing a major artery. The third death happened in 1909 when Michael Riley "Doc" Powers, a catcher, was injured when he crashed into a wall chasing a foul pop up during the first game ever at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. He sustained internal injuries. Powers was a doctor. In the days after the incident he underwent three surgeries. But his death 12 days later was not attributed to his injuries, but instead to Peritonitis, an infection condition he contracted either during or after the surgeries while still in the hospital. Of the injuries known to have occurred in home plate collisions, only the one to Fosse in July, 1970 was of long-term consequence. Fosse did recover enough to resume his major league career (he even played 42 games during the second half of the 1970 season), but the fact that a separated shoulder he sustained in the incident wasn't diagnosed until the following season, caused Fosse long-term discomfort. Physicians said the failure to correctly discover the injury when it occurred caused his shoulder to heal improperly. He sustained a series of other injuries (including a serious injury in June, 1974 when he crushed a neck disc while trying to break up a clubhouse fight between two Oakland Athletic teammates) during the remainder of his long career (he retired at the end of spring training in 1980), and it is hard to say which was more consequential. It is true that his statistics in the first half of 1970 were never again equaled, but even then he was being platooned by the Indians.
It is quite apparent that the major leagues are reacting to the the large tort awards being earned by certain ex-football players who have sued the league for not taking decisive action when they sustained head injuries during their careers. And so, once again, goofy lawsuits are at the root of the problem. These football players say they were unaware they would be injured while playing professional football, but the owners did know and did not take action to prevent it. Great.
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