Centerfield

Thought #2: Chase Utley is a Dirty Player. Should be Suspended Well the suspension happened. Kudos to Joe Torre and MLB to have the balls to take a stand, even if it means admitting that the umpires fucked up Saturday night. Utley has had a history of this kind of bullshit. The earlier takeout slide on Tejada in 2010. This slide that someone posted in the IGT: Nothing will ever make me feel better about what happened. But if a new rule is invoked and it goes down in history as "The Utley Rule" and he is forever known to future generations as the dickless coward that he is, then I will take some consolation in this.

Ok. I've had some time to calm down now (it took all day Sunday. Like the entire day. I have never been that mad for so long about anything Mets-related). And since I've calmed down, I've thought about whether my reaction was warranted. As all of this was going down, my immediate reactions were: 1) Mets got blatantly screwed multiple times by the umps. They should walk off the field right now in protest. 2) Utley is a dirty fuckhead and we should hunt him down and kick the shit out of him. 3) Terry Collins should be fired. But at the time I was very emotional, a little buzzed, and not in the right state of mind to be making any real decisions. But now, calm and sober, I think my reactions may have been a bit severe, but they were dead on point. I'll break this up into three separate posts because it's long. Mets Got Screwed By the Umps. And the Screwup was One for the Ages. It wasn't just that the Mets got screwed by a bad call. They got screwed by a bad call, and then a series of bad judgment calls, all resulting in the worst possible result for the Mets. First and foremost, the play should have been ruled interference. Section (a)(13) states: (A batter is out when) A preceding runner shall, in the umpire�s judgment, intentionally interfere with a fielder who is attempting to catch a thrown ball or to throw a ball in an attempt to complete any play. The explanation follow rule 5.09(a)(13) from official MLB rulebook. The objective of this rule is to penalize the offensive team for deliberate, unwarranted, unsportsmanlike action by the runner in leaving the baseline for the obvious purpose of crashing the pivot man on a double play, rather than trying to reach the base. Obviously this is an umpire�s judgment play. There is not a person in the world that can watch this replay and reach any other conclusion. You could travel to Nepal, pull indigenous people off a mountain, show them the replay and ask whether the runner is trying to go for the base, or the player, and every single one of them will say he was going for the player. You cannot reach any other conclusion when a man runs past a base, and delivers the force of his entire running start into the lower half of an opposing player. Double play awarded. Inning over. Kudos to MLB for watching the replay and acknowledging that this is what should have happened. But wait, there's more. Tejada was ruled not to touch the bag on replay review. But that replay should never have taken place. MLB and the umpires state that because Murphy's throw was off-line, it was not subject to the neighborhood play. Absolutely not true. Here is the rule: Notwithstanding the foregoing, the following calls will not be subject to review: The Umpire's judgment that a runner is clearly out on a force play at second base under circumstances in which the defensive player may or may not have touched second base in his attempt to complete a double play and avoid a collision with the runner. All other elements of the call shall be subject to review, including whether the fielder caught the ball, had control of the ball, was drawn off the bag, or tagged the runner. In this regard, a determination as to whether the fielder made a catch before dropping the ball while in the act of making a throw following the catch shall be reviewable. There is no question that this is what took place here. Tejada missed second because, and only because, he was attempting to complete a double play. If there were two outs in the inning, Tejada catches the ball, looks down and sits on second base. He does not attempt to whirl around and direct his eyes toward first. Was it a tough play? Yes, but it was only a tough play because Tejada was trying to turn two. Whether or not the rule applies is not the difficulty of the play. It's the intent of fielder. And here, the fielder is trying to protect himself while trying to turn two. It is not correct that Murphy's throw pulled him off the bag. Again, if there were two outs, staying on second is a routine play. Murphy did not pull Tejada off the bag. His throw failed to properly lead Tejada to make the double play easier. These are completely different things. It makes all the sense in the world that the intent of the fielder should dictate here. If a player is thinking "OMG, this throw is pulling me off the bag", he should stretch and stay on the bag. If he is thinking "How do I get this throw off to first", then the neighborhood play should apply. You can't ask middle infielders to determine whether this is a routine double play or not while making these plays. There is either a neighborhood play or there isn't. Enforce the rule. Allowing this play to go to reviewed was a blatant misreading of the rule. I think they should file a protest for this. MLB's reasoning is off base. And these two, are just warmups for the biggest fuck up of them all. There is no fucking way in hell that Chase Utley should have been awarded second base. MLB's explanation is that Utley is awarded second base because the call on the field was wrong, and he is therefore given the base. This is not true. This is what the rule states: Correcting an Incorrect Call Consistent with Official Baseball Rule 8.02© (formerly Rule 9.02©), if Replay Review results in a change to a call that had been made on the field, the Replay Official, to the extent feasible, shall exercise his discretion to place both Clubs in the same position they would have been in had the call on the field been correct. This shall include placing runners where he thinks those runners would have been at the conclusion of the reviewed play if the reviewed call had been correctly made in the first instance, disregarding interference or obstruction that may have occurred on the play, failures of runners to tag up based upon the initial call on the field, runners passing other runners, missing bases, etc. The explanation had been that Utley didn't touch the base because he was called out. That is why he left the field. What they failed to consider is that Ruben Tejada never thought tag Utley because the call had been out. If immediately following the collision, the call had been safe, Utley would have presumably, tried to scramble back to the bag, and Tejada would have tried to tag him. It was within the replay official's discretion to determine what may have happened in this scenario. Let me repeat this. Awarding Utley second base was within the replay official's discretion. And that is the part that bogges my mind. The replay official, having the benefit of time, super-slo mo replays, and a rule book at his fingertips, saw the following things: 1. The tackle that would later warrant a suspension 2. Utley run right past the bag and aim at Tejada's leg 3. Tejada dancing around second WHILE TRYING TO TURN A DOUBLE PLAY 4. Tejada carted off on a stretcher 5. A millimeter between Tejada's foot and the base 6. A baserunner who, after completely ignoring the base on the way in, ignored it on the way off the field 7. A fielder lying there with a broken leg as a result of the tackle referenced in #1 And then, having the discretion to award the base or not, made the conscious decision to give Utley the base. It took an out off the board, and the Dodgers scored all of their runs with two outs. It is inexcusable that this replay official should not have to answer for his decision here. They were screwed THREE TIMES in one play. Oh, and they lost their shortstop to a broken leg. HOW THE FUCK IS THIS DEFENSIBLE. Every umpire involved in these three decisions should be suspended. They should never work the post-season again.

Now suspend the umpire and the replay crew for not having the balls to make the right call. Fuck them.

Author is garbage and always will be. I'm pissed at the gutless umps, both on the field and in NY, who didn't have the balls to call interference. Utley admitted his goal was to out a body on Tejada. This is why he ran right past the bag. That is, by rule, interference.

Utley came in high because he had to. If he slides regularly Tejada jumps over him and gets off the throw. Dirty and illegal. Should have been 2.

I don't know who that is between Wright and Utley, but he has a close up look at David's giant balls. Go David. I slept like crap. I can't remember ever being more mad about something that happened in baseball. Heartbroken, sure. Even sad. But as mad as I get watching the game it never takes me more than a few minutes to calm down. 8 hours later and I'm still fuming. That play was wrong on so many levels. It should have been a DP and Utley should have been fucking ejected with a suspension following today.

From David Schoenfeld's article on ESPN: http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/64132/the-slide-that-ruined-everybodys-night-except-the-dodgers Rule 6.05 reads: A batter is out when -- (m) A preceding runner shall, in the umpire's judgment, intentionally interfere with a fielder who is attempting to catch a thrown ball or to throw a ball in an attempt to complete any play: Rule 6.05(m) Comment: The objective of this rule is to penalize the offensive team for deliberate, unwarranted, unsportsmanlike action by the runner in leaving the baseline for the obvious purpose of crashing the pivot man on a double play, rather than trying to reach the base. Obviously this is an umpire's judgment play. Was Utley trying to reach the base? No. Did he leave the baseline? Yes? Was it deliberate, unwarranted and unsportsmanlike? Yes. CALL THE RULE. IT'S ALREADY ON THE BOOKS. Or you can use Rule 7.09: It is interference by a batter or a runner when -- (e) If, in the judgment of the umpire, a base runner willfully and deliberately interferes with a batted ball or a fielder in the act of fielding a batted ball with the obvious intent to break up a double play, the ball is dead. The umpire shall call the runner out for interference and also call out the batter-runner because of the action of his teammate. In no event may bases be run or runs scored because of such action by a runner. Deliberately and willfully? Again, yes. CALL THE RULE. IT'S ALREADY ON THE BOOKS.

So the baserunner is excused from touching second because he believes he was out. According to Torre, the fielder, after Utley had been called out, could have tagged him, and he would have been out. THIS IS FUCKING IDIOTIC. CHASE UTLEY MADE NO ATTEMPT TO GO TO SECOND BASE. BY HIS OWN WORDS, HE WENT AFTER THE FIELDER. AFTER HAVING TAKEN OUT THE FIELDER HE LEFT THE FIELD, BECAUSE SECOND BASE WAS NOWHERE ON HIS MIND. THAT IS FUCKING INTERFERENCE AND HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN FUCKING OUT. FUCK UTLEY. FUCK THE UMPS. AND FUCKING THE FUCKING DODGERS.

Chase Utley just said his intent was to put a body on him. Should be a double play.

They keep replaying it. He ran right past the base and right at Ruben. Should have been a double play.

Utley ran right past the bag and straight at Tejada. Should have been a double play.

I thought you could not challenge the neighborhood play.

Dammit. Gotta swing there.

I've said all along I'd be happy with a split coming out of LA... ....is what fans say if their team has lost game 1. KILL KILL KILL!!!!

Last night's game was also very enjoyable. I would like to partake in such festivities again tonight.

October baseball is awesome. We should do this more often.

BOOKS!!!!!!!!!

ONE DOWN

Come on guys.

Ok. Let's finish this.

Ok. Let's score 15 and I will start to feel comfortable.

GO GET FAMILIA.

FIVE

I'm wishing we had put Roger McDowell on the post season roster.

Ok Tyler. Please do not suck tonight.