On
October 10, 2015, Los Angeles Dodgers 2B Chase Utley preformed what can at the
very least be called a very questionable slide on New York Mets SS Ruben
Tejada. Take a look for yourself below.
Since
the slide, many pundits and fans have come out and discussed it, with the
general consensus being that Utley did in fact preform a dirty slide. Many called for his suspension, and at this
point he is appealing a 2-game suspension handed down by MLB. The suspension aside, this slide got me
thinking. I recall hearing about such
players as Ty Cobb and Pete Rose, true legends in the sport, doing some questionable
things on the field.
Yeah, Rose didn’t
really have any qualms about running directly into people if the situation
called for it. Anyhow, I just wanted to
take a little bit of time and look back on some of the more questionable plays
of baseball, with some examples coming straight from MLB. This may be a bit limited, because YouTube
does not have baseball going back too terribly far, but I will do my best on
examples.
1.
Breaking Up the Double Play
In the above
video, Utley was trying to break up a double play. However, there is a multitude of other
examples of players going through some extraordinary efforts to prevent their
teammates from being doubled up. Now,
back when I played youth baseball, I asked my coach at the time why people
didn’t just run straight up toward 2nd base on grounders. After all, wouldn’t obstructing the view of
the player turning the double play be ideal?
My coach, who apparently was a 2nd baseman in the Twins Minor
League system at some point, informed me that when players tried doing that
sort of thing against him, he would just fire the ball as hard as he could
right into their chest. I haven’t seen
that actually happen (and much less wanted to feel it happen), but in MLB there
have been some instances of players just straight-up running to 2nd
in double play situations. Here’s the
result of one such time:
Yeah, I’d have to
say that was pretty dirty. Running
straight into a player, if they are in fact in the baseline, is legal. A forearm shiver, though? That’s dirty.
If you are
interested in seeing more slides breaking up double plays, a simple YouTube
search should bring up plenty.
2.
Cleating
Cleating is the act of raising one’s cleats
to dig into an opponent on a slide. It
is done at 2nd base on occasion to break up double plays, but it can
also be done at any of the other bases, particularly home plate. Ty Cobb, one of the greatest baseball players
of all time, was known for cleating in his day (Ty Cobb Short Documentary ). Of course, he definitely was not the only one
to cleat in games, and sometimes it is actually intentional. Cleating still is a rather easy way to injure
an opponent (Mercer Hurt By Cleating).
3.
Throwing At Players
I’m sure you’ve
seen this before. Honestly, sometimes I
have no problem with this one. There are
some unwritten rules of baseball, and that fact gets called into question every
once in awhile. Regardless, if a team
bunts with an 8-run lead, I don’t really have much issue with plunking one of
their players on the butt (so long as you are careful about where on the butt). Sometimes it isn’t a plunking per-say, as
pitchers and position players have from time to time thrown at opposing
baserunners. It’s fairly rare, but
here’s one example: .
So
how do we get rid of these potentially dirty plays? Honestly, you can’t really. Just play the game the right way, and hope
others do the same.
How
do you feel about these examples? Do you
have a favorite example of a dirty play in MLB?
Do you feel like any of the above weren’t dirty? Talk about it in the comments section below!
As
always, constructive comments/critiques are welcomed.
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