Something that used to be second nature in baseball \u2014 sliding hard into second base to prevent a double play \u2014 is deciding games and giving major leaguers fits a week into the season. From the AL to the NL, runners making that 90-foot dash are wondering: What\u2019s acceptable anymore?<\/p>\n
Twice during opening week, a game turned on a slide that was ruled unacceptable. The most recent dust-up occurred Friday night in Milwaukee when Colby Rasmus was called for interference, resulting in a game-ending double play in the ninth inning that allowed the Brewers to hold on for a 6-4 win.<\/p>\n
Astros ace Dallas Keuchel later vented on Twitter: \u201cAre we even playing baseball anymore??? Unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Better believe it\u2019s going to keep happening until everyone figures out what\u2019s allowed under the \u201cChase Utley rule,\u201d enacted after his slide broke the leg of Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada during the playoffs. Players have to slide at the base and be able to maintain contact with it \u2014 Rasmus slid past the base and was called for interference.<\/p>\n
Every team in the majors will see the play as another teaching moment. Major League Baseball sent 20 videos to teams in the offseason defining what\u2019s acceptable and what\u2019s not. The Pittsburgh Pirates show videos of the most recent \u201cUtley rule\u201d slides at the start of each series.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time there becomes an issue in the league where a guy is called out, we show that slide so guys can see it,\u201d manager Clint Hurdle said Saturday morning before a game against the Cincinnati Reds. \u201cWhen we have our next (team) meeting, Monday in Detroit, we\u2019ll show the slides that have happened from the last bit of slides.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe catch them up on what\u2019s going on in the league, what\u2019s been called out and what\u2019s been called appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
One week in, teams aren\u2019t so sure. Hurdle asked for clarification from MLB on why a Cardinals runner wasn\u2019t called out for turning his body toward the infield while sliding into the base during their opening series.<\/p>\n
Is that allowed? Was it a borderline call? Is it a gray area that needs to be cleared up?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re confused by it,\u201d Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Saturday before a game in Detroit. \u201cWe\u2019ve told our players: Slide into the base. But I\u2019m going to say it again: We\u2019ve told players for years not to dive head-first into first base. What do they do? Their instinct takes over, they\u2019re playing hard, and they do it. So I think it\u2019s hard. I think it\u2019s going to be hard for players.\u201d<\/p>\n
MLB knew there would be a break-in period. Only three days into the season, the outcome of a game was directly affected by the new rule. Tampa Bay got a 3-2 win over Toronto when Jose Bautista was called for an illegal slide into second base in the ninth inning, negating an errant throw by Logan Forsythe that would have let in a go-ahead run for the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n
There was a lot of complaining over that one, too. The umpires reviewed Bautista\u2019s slide and determined it wasn\u2019t directly into the base, hindering Forsythe. The result was a game-ending double play.<\/p>\n
While runners are still adjusting to the rule, middle infielders are supporting the crackdown. They\u2019ve all been leveled while trying to turn a double play and they know how dangerous it can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow they just slide into the base, we\u2019ve got time to touch the base and get out of the way,\u201d the Yankees\u2019 Starlin Castro said. \u201cIt\u2019s good because it\u2019s less injury for middle infielders. We just make sure we stay on the base as long as we can and we\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Managers figure it\u2019ll all get worked out, much the way players adapted to the rules enacted to protect catchers a few years ago. There were questions at the outset about what was an acceptable slide into home plate and whether a catcher was improperly blocking the plate.<\/p>\n
The players will adapt, and there will be fewer outbursts on Twitter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very similar to what\u2019s gone on at home plate,\u201d Hurdle said.<\/p>\n
\u2022 AP Baseball Writer Noah Trister in Detroit and Sports Writer Genaro C. Armas in Milwaukee contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Something that used to be second nature in baseball \u2014 sliding hard into second base to prevent a double play \u2014 is deciding games and giving major leaguers fits a week into the season. From the AL to the NL, runners making that 90-foot dash are wondering: What\u2019s acceptable anymore? Twice during opening week, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":7190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-7189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7189"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}