OK, how about this. If a runner is trying to score a run, charging hard from third base and the catcher is about to get the ball on a throw from the outfield already blocking the baseline you know what's coming.....nothing. No big plays at he plate anymore. The runner coming from third base MUST now slide. He cannot impact the catcher even if the catcher is blocking his way. He HAS to slide.
Disgraceful. Simply disgraceful. Oh we know there will be the nannies who tell us Pete Rose did Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game and Fosse's career was never the same blah blah blah. Too bad. A collision IS part of the game. Catchers grow up knowing this. If the catcher has the ball and you have no other path to the plate, you knock him over. Johnny was excellent at this in Little League, Pony League, and High School baseball. Just not in the Major Leagues anymore. Players have to slide and try to find away around the catcher. Woooo, how unexciting. Yet one more reason baseball has become quite unwatchable gets worse.
Tell us MLB, were pitcher instructed to never throw inside again? That to us would seem far more dangerous and hit batsmen (beanballs) happen far more frequently than home plate collisions, but THAT seems to be part of the game according to the wussies at Major League Baseball. Colliding with the catcher isn't anymore. What about breaking up double plays? Guys with a hard slide certainly hurt more infielders than any runner hitting a catcher every year. For once in his life Pete Rose is right:
"You're not allowed to pitch inside. The hitters wear more armor than the Humvees in Afghanistan. Now you're not allowed to try to be safe at home plate?" Rose said. "What's the game coming to? Evidently the guys making all these rules never played the game of baseball."
So if you're sick of stooges like A-Rod and Ryan Braun being celebrated, if you can't stand the fact you still subsidize the Mets and Yankees stadiums, if the on-field product has become almost unwatchable, now baseball goes and takes out even more excitement.
Anyone from MLB that wants to show up and have this debate here Johnny would love nothing more. He just won't be doing it from Debits Field in Queens or Billion Dollar House that Taxpayers Built in the Bronx.
Oh, and the games are going to be awash in instant replays next year. See you at the shore!
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