On Wednesday night in San Francisco Buster Posey was absolutely blown up when Scott Cousins attempted to score the go ahead run in the top of the 12th inning. Emilio Bonifacio hit a fly ball to short right field, Nate Schierholtz made the catch and threw home slightly up the first base line Posey could not manage on a short hop. Cousins made solid contact, dropping his shoulder into Posey's chest as he tried to win the game. Unfortunately for Posey and the Giants, the reigning Rookie of the Year will most likely be out for the rest of the season. Nobody likes to see promising young players injured, but sometimes it is just part of the game.
Of course every time there is a significant injury in professional sports people use it as a soap box to try and change the game. This time it is former All-star catcher and current horrible sportscaster, Tim McCarver. Ken Rosenthal wrote an article for Fox Sports about McCarver's proposed idea and how he shared it with various people currently in the game.
McCarver's suggestion: Any baserunner who goes after a catcher's head at home plate should be automatically ejected and fined, his run taken off the board.
According to the article Tony La Russa agrees with the idea; while Mike Scioscia (a former All-star catcher as well) is staunchly opposed. Scioscia stated he didn't like the change because "(blocking the plate) was the last vestige of courage the game has." The article finished with McCarver saying, "If you eliminate any shots, you eliminate cheap shots..."
The biggest problem with making the change that McCarver is proposing is you are now giving the catcher the advantage. With no fear of someone like Matt Holliday bearing down, the catcher can feel safe in blocking the plate and calmly catching the ball coming from right field. As every kid is taught in little league, as a catcher on a play at the plate you catch the ball and then block the plate. Until the ball gets there you should be set up but the runner should have a clear sight line to the dish. Once you make the catch you drop your knee and get your shin guards between you and the charging runner. When I was a learning my coach always told us "Hold the ball in your glove and brace with your other hand. When the runner comes in get your glove in his face, give him a black eye. He's trying to hurt you so hurt him right back." Leave the plate open until you're ready to make a play and collisions don't have to happen.
Now word has come out that Posey's agent (Jeff Barry of CAA Sports) has complained to MLB about the collision. This complaint sounds a lot like sour grapes. It was a clean hit and legal within the game's current rules. Do you think Ray Fosse's agent complained to MLB after Pete Rose leveled him in the 1970 All-Star game? I am going to go out on a limb and say no. They aren't called "the tools of ignorance" for no reason. Posey was trying to take the advantage by blocking the plate before he had the ball. As you can see in this screenshot John Gruber posted on twitter the ball isn't even in the frame and you can clearly see him standing on the third base line. From the runner's point of view the only option here is to drop your shoulder in to the catchers chest and hope he can't hang on to the ball. That is what Cousins did and the only reason we are talking about it now is due to the horrible injury to Posey. I hope he has a fast recovery but this is the game.
Couldn't have said it better than Gruber.
