Dodger’s manager Don Mattingly defended Chase Utley‘s slide which broke Ruben Tejada‘s leg and ended his season. Mattingly argued that it was a good baseball play, and said that Mets’ fans would not have an issue with it if David Wright made a similar slide.
“If it would have been their guy, they would be saying, ‘David Wright, hey, he’s a gamer; he went after him. That’s the way you’ve got to play.’ But it’s our guy; it’s different.”
“So I know how the kind of the New York media gets a little bit going, and it gets dramatic, but for me you can’t have it both ways. If David would have done it, it wouldn’t have been any problem here in New York.” (Mark Feinsand, NY Daily News)
He also said that it’s only a big story because Tejada wound up getting hurt.
“If their captain, David Wright comes into Corey Seager and slides like that, the exact same slide, and let’s say he didn’t get hurt, there would be rumblings, but it goes away.”
“Guys talk and chat, but if nobody got hurt, it wouldn’t even be talked about hardly today. It would have just been a hard slide, and there would have been controversy back and forth if it was hard; but since someone got hurt, now it’s a story.”
However, the Dodgers still insist it was a clean play. They released a statement last night supporting him and his decision to appeal.
“The Dodgers stand behind Chase Utley and his decision to appeal the suspension issued tonight by Major League Baseball. The club will have no further comment at this time.”
The Dodgers will play with a 24 man roster the next two games if Utley loses the appeal.
It’s really a ridiculous argument from Mattingly as Utley was definitely in violation of the rules. Thankfully, MLB finally made the right call last night by suspending Utley two games for his brutal take out slide. It should have been a longer suspension. And to bring David Wright into this? Pathetic.
Hopefully the suspension will be upheld tomorrow, and Major League Baseball learns from this terrible situation. They have to do a better job of protecting middle infielders from plays like this going forward.
