Comments on: Rule Change: Collisions At Home Plate

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 26 May 2011 22:41:14 +0000

I understand that Fisk thing and saving his career, but after winning the gold glove the year before he would never win one again in the next 21 years and he got hook slided to death on those close ones and was a terrible plate blocker in those instances. He did have the long career and never had a collision again.

By: jdon

jdon — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:23:07 +0000

Now they really need Reyes’ bat, God forgive me.

By: jdon

jdon — Thu, 26 May 2011 20:22:30 +0000

Why don;t we play without outfield walls then?

By: Steve from Norfolk

Steve from Norfolk — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:56:37 +0000

I’d like to hear that call. With Torre’s years of catching experience, he’ll get a good laugh out of Barry! A catcher has a much better chance of coming through a collision OK than the runner does. That protective gear may be designed to stop a baseball, but it does a good job of protecting a catcher from a runner, too.

By: harry c

harry c — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:45:53 +0000

You donutz the parrot are a sissy, you want a sissy game, play tiddley winks. wait, its too dangerous for you. The guy on the chat box who called you an a@s@s is the smartest guy here.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:10:16 +0000

Yeah the protection is all built to stop sharp penetration not blunt force…

And it’s all front facing anyway! The majority of force in a collision is going to be on the back end!

I have no problems if they wish to protect the players better but like I said if they make one rule they have to make sure it’s not all one sided and give the catcher the ability to block the plate so he can’t touch it without going through him!

By: Des

Des — Thu, 26 May 2011 17:58:22 +0000

Looks good to me.

Let’s also remember that much of the catcher’s gear is to protect against damage from baseballs, not to protect like a football lineman’s gear.

By: Donal

Donal — Thu, 26 May 2011 17:45:46 +0000

Oh, let’s ask Carlton Fisk…wait a second, after a collision in 1974, Fisk switched to the swipe tag in order to preserve his career.

Guess that answers that.

By: 86mets

86mets — Thu, 26 May 2011 17:42:51 +0000

Spot on t agee. Any possible dirty play should be reviewed and if the league determines it was dirty then fines and suspensions. But this was not dirty and you could tell that Cousins was concerned about Posey after the play which indicates he had no harmful intention. If a rule change is made it will have all the appearances of being made because a star player got hurt. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if this were a .220 hitting backup catcher (Henry Blanco for instance) no one would be talking rule change.

By: 86mets

86mets — Thu, 26 May 2011 17:37:40 +0000

I was not referring to Buster Olney. I was talking about Posey’s agent, Jeff Barry I believe, who was quoted as saying that he was going to call Joe Torre in the Commissioner’s office to bring this to their attention about a possible rule change. And you ask Johnny Bench or Carlton Fisk because they played all those years, endured their fair share of collisions at home plate. Collisions are a part of the game. There was nothing, absolutely nothing dirty, or wrong with Cousins’ play. Can you list all the catchers who have been seriously injured over the last 10 years, or 20, due to a collision? It’s a shame that Posey got hurt, no doubt. But it’s no cause for a rule change. Again, I want to know if this were a no-name back up catcher who got hurt would anyone give it more than a cursory “oh, that’s a shame” and let it go at that? What if that were the Mets’ Mike Nickeas or Phillies’ Brian Schneider that happened to, would anyone make a fuss about it? No.

By: Donal

Donal — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:59:20 +0000

True that. Make it the same across the board

By: jessep

jessep — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:43:02 +0000

Posey has a broken leg and torn ligaments. Huge blow to defending champs

By: XtreemIcon

XtreemIcon — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:40:04 +0000

Des, I’m fairly certain, catchers have facemasks, helmets, neck guards, chest protectors and a shinguard on each leg.

By: Russell Zanca

Russell Zanca — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:45:05 +0000

Whoa! That would explain why he was writhing in agony. Sucks for G-Men.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:44:36 +0000

If the catcher can not be hit then they also have to change the rule to say the Catcher must not be in the running lane and give the runner acceess, not block the plate. Just as it is at all the other bases.

By: Donal

Donal — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:43:30 +0000

First of all, one play does not win or lose a game.

Second, what do they get now that Posey is out for however long? How many runs would otherwise produce on offense or rpevent on defense?

“Where was this call when Pete Rose run over Ray Fosse in the All Star Game? ”

I’ve heard a lot of complaints about that for a long time.

“This is a ridiculous call by a player agent who’s only worried about his commission if Posey’s career is somehow shortened by this play. ”

Buster Olney is not an agent.

“Why doesn’t someone ask Johnny Bench or Carlton Fisk or Mike Scoscia if the rules should be changed? You know, the one’s who put their careers on the line on those plays.”

Are they doctors? No? OK.

By: 86mets

86mets — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:34:44 +0000

That “ONE” run cost SF the game, so YES, to save one run. It’s been part of the game for 100 years, so why should the rules change because of one player? What if that catcher was Henry Blanco or David Ross, would we be having this conversation? Absolutely NOT, because no one cares one way or the other about backup catchers, right? But because it’s the Giants special little Buster Posey, all of a sudden collisions at home plate are evil and should be eliminated. Where was this call when Pete Rose run over Ray Fosse in the All Star Game?

This is a ridiculous call by a player agent who’s only worried about his commission if Posey’s career is somehow shortened by this play. He’s not worried about Posey. Again, I ask, if his client in this situation was Ronny Paulino would he be calling the commissioner of baseball for a rule change? NO. Because Paulino wouldn’t represent nearly as much commission for the agent. Why doesn’t someone ask Johnny Bench or Carlton Fisk or Mike Scoscia if the rules should be changed? You know, the one’s who put their careers on the line on those plays.

By: Russell Zanca

Russell Zanca — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:10:41 +0000

Catchers don’t have protective gear?

His ankle was injured. FB players wrap theirs.

By: t agee

t agee — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:05:22 +0000

I’d say don’t change the rule. Have every play like this reviwed and see if the runner had other options (like the outside corner to go for) be fore the catcher caught the ball or if the catcher blocked the entire plate before getting the ball. If the catcher had left part of the plate open for him and the runner still hit the catcher before he had the ball, give him a 2 game suspension, if the runner had no other options or the catcher HAD the ball before contact. No suspension.

If Posey had caught that ball he would have had time to protect himself before he got hit. Posey has his leg blocking the plate obviously before he got the ball (he never did get the ball) The runner had nothing he could get to cleanly and the ball beat him there and he could tell this simply by watching Posey’s reactions as he came in.

I don’t have a problem with what Cousins did there at all.

By: Donal

Donal — Thu, 26 May 2011 14:56:08 +0000

That’s what I was thinking. Even if you do pass a rule, you’ve got several generations of players, coaches and umps who still have this programmed into them.