I've finally reached the end of my rope in regards to the Buster Posey injury discussion. He got hurt five days ago, when is enough enough?
For those of you who did not click the link above, Posey was injured in a home plate collision with Scott Cousins of the Florida Marlins.
To be completely honest, I don't know what all of the "discussion" is about. That is a clean, hard nosed baseball play that has happened (unofficially) millions of times since the creation of the game of baseball. The only thing that made this one different was the unfortunate fact that Buster Posey happened to suffer an injury on the play. If he doesn't get hurt on the play, it isn't even a footnote in baseball's record books. It'd just make up 3 seconds of a 30 second highlight on Sportscenter.
The other thing that sets this thing apart is the fact that it was Buster Posey who was injured on the play. In baseball circles, he's kind of regarded as the "golden boy" of up and coming young superstars. During the offseason, MLB Network ran a series of programs titled "Top 10 Right Now," which they ranked the top 10 players at each position. After a little more than half of a season in the big leagues, Posey was ranked by MLB Network as the second best catcher right now (behind Joe Mauer). I thought that was a little high, but that's not what we're talking about at the moment. Sadly, if it were Matt Treanor, and not Buster Posey, that this happened to, we probably wouldn't be talking about it.
Jeff Berry, Buster Posey's agent, has already called for Major League Baseball to eliminate collisions at the plate. To me, this is a joke. The injury happened on a play that has always been considered a baseball play. If Scott Cousins had intentionally gone to the head, I would agree with the argument. If he had gone low and taken out Posey's legs, I would have agreed with the argument. However, Scott Cousins ran right through Buster Posey's body, as players are taught to do. It wasn't the contact itself that injured Posey, it was the way he fell after the contact. This is an insanely stupid request from Jeff Barry who is probably just a little nervous that his cash train may have just de-railed.
If for some reason MLB would pass a rule eliminating home plate collisions it would just be another instance where a league changes a rule because of an injury to a star player. Honestly though, I don't even think MLB will consider passing this rule. If they did however, then they'd have to eliminate take out slides, automatically fine and suspend pitchers for hitting a batter with a pitch and eliminate suicide squeeze plays just because they sound bad. Seriously, the game is great. There's no need to change the rules to soften it up. You wouldn't want to follow the same path as the NFL.
As soon as you think that the Buster Posey injury discussion is FINALLY over, Mike Matheny has to chime in with his opinion on the matter. I really have mixed feelings on his comments on the issue and at the moment, I'm not completely sure what to say about them. I like how he isn't in favor of changing the rules and I also like how he says that this wasn't a dirty play either. However, he also mentions that even though it wasn't a dirty play, it was an unnecessary play. He claimed Cousins was "hunting" on the play and that Posey gave him a lane to slide to the outside that Cousins didn't take.
Honestly, you could make the case that there is always an outside lane on any play like that. After watching the video again several times, I still maintain that it is just a hard (yet clean) baseball play.
Cousins is tagging up on a ball in the top of the 12th inning and represents the go ahead run for the Marlins. As soon as that ball is caught, he put his head down and chugged his way to the plate as fast as his legs would take him. He looks up, sees Posey blocking the plate, while making a play on the ball and he ran through him. To me, that's doing whatever it takes to give your team the lead in the 12th inning of a tight ballgame. I understand the Giants don't like it, based on the end result, but it Cousins was on your team, he would've gained a lot of respect in the clubhouse for a play like that.
My favorite part of this entire play though is the sportsmanship shown by Cousins after the collision. As soon as he scored the run, his first move was to check on Posey to make sure he was ok. Unfortunately he wasn't but that's a class act by a player in the heat of the moment. It's never a good thing to overlook positive sportsmanship considering there isn't enough of it in sports as it is.
One thing people are overlooking about this whole thing is the role Chris Coghlan played in this whole thing. He was on deck at the time this play went down. At the moment the ball was hit, Coghlan got into a position behind the plate where he could direct Cousins what to do in the event of a close play. That way the runner doesn't have to take his eyes off of the plate because doing so would cause him to slow down. I know he's back there because he is in the video immediately after the collision. However I've never seen a view of the collision which shows his instructions to Cousins. Did Coghlan tell Cousins to run over Posey? My instinct on the matter tells me yes. Had Coghlan told Cousins to slide to the outside (aka Matheny's "lane"), I have no reason to believe that he wouldn't have done it.
Either way, what should it matter, it was still a clean baseball play. It's sad that Buster Posey got hurt and is probably out for the season, but that's a risk you take everyday you put the catcher's gear on. Players know the risks so they shouldn't be surprised when something like this finally does happen. It's unfortunate but it's just part of the game and it should stay that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment