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Collisions
Published 7:57am Sunday, June 12, 2011Recently there was some discussion in the media about the violent collisions that occur at home plate. You know the ones where the catcher gets completely rolled over. The thought has been to change some rules to protect the catcher. Now I am all for that but why are they stopping at protecting the catcher and not thinking of the middle infielders. Back in the day when I wasn’t pitching I was a middle infielder so I am speaking from a little experience here. I may be the only person out there who thought the play where Swisher of the Yankees taking out the Twins Nishyoka was a dirty play. It wasn’t that he was just trying to bust up the double play but Swisher came in very high with his leg to take Nishy out. Nishy’s leg was broken just under the knee cap and if you go back and look at that play you will see how high Swisher came in with that leg. Many times the middle infielder whether do to timing of his own footwork or maybe an errant toss from his teammate will put in a very vulnerable position and that is where injuries occur and the middle infielder doesn’t have some of the protection the catcher has. It may be a hard judgment call for the umpire but a change should be made like maybe going out of his way in the baseline to get the fielder or just going out of his way period to get the fielder should be called an automatic double play. There I got off my soap box. -I was thinking the other day on who should represent the Twins in the All Star Game. This year our star players have battle injuries or poor seasons so who to choose. I came up with Michael Cuddyer. He is the one regular who has remained in the lineup and although he started out slow has picked things up recently. He also deserves to go for all he has meant to the Twins the past number of years. The scaring thing is I read in the Tribune that Gardy feels the same. Geez, me and Gardy thinking on the same lines, I’m not sure I can take it! -Alexi Casilla can sure come up with some big singles. He did it again the other day with a walk off hit in the 9th. This guy frustrates me so much because he just has lots of talent but only shows it once in awhile. I have always hated players who have all this talent but just don’t put forth the effort all of the time. I was a mediocre ballplayer at best but I worked very hard to become the player I was and I was a serviceable player for many years so to watch guys with gifted talent let it go to waste just irritates the heck out of me. -The Twins starting pitching has settled down a bit except for Duensing who has struggled a bit. Baker pitched a great game the other day and I really like watching him pitch when he is on but then again I like watching any pitcher pitch when they are on. The bullpen has pitched better of late too maybe because they kind of know their role now and that can be a big thing. -Speaking of settling in all the Twins players seem to have settled down. Where I have noticed it the most is in how they are finally playing the game of baseball the way it should be played. Early in the year it was tough to watch as I have seen little league teams play better fundamental baseball than the Twins. Whether the new players are more relaxed and having fun or they are just getting used to being in the big leagues, it sure has been more pleasant watching them play. I want my team to win championships but if they can’t do that but still play good ball then I will continue to watch and root for them. When they play the type of ball the Twins were playing early I will not watch.
The problem with any sport is you always have a few individuals who learn to ‘play dirty’. Then rules have to be added that take the ‘flavor’ away from the game. At least the NFL and the NCAA are outlawing using the helmet as a weapon. But it is still a contact sport. But there are those ‘subtleties’ that exist in every sport and its mostly the ‘dirty players’ looking to gain an edge who use their every nook and cranny to find a way to deliver a crippling blow.
Until you really start to deal with the miscreants, you are not going to solve the real issues here. Only water down the game for everyone else. There are ways to disrupt a 2nd Baseman’s throw to 1st without slicing his knee out. If a ump sees the act was willful with the intent to harm or take a player out, the runner should be thrown out of the game. That will stop high shoes from taking knees out.
Agree. In baseball, though, the take-out at 2nd and the home plate collisions have been a part of the game forever. So eliminating this stuff isn’t just a matter of getting rid of the miscreants. It means changing the game, which I fully support.