Hello Baseball Fans,
Hopefully your favorite teams and players are off to a hot start this year. It’s no where near the All-Star break yet, you know the time when your team’s place in the standings becomes more critical. That’s when your boys of summer can be deemed to be in it, or sadly, booking those inevitable Florida golf trips for the day after game number one sixty-two. The 2016 season is ‘already’ close to twenty-five percent completed so that means there’s only 125 or so more games to be played. Tune in quick. They’re going by fast!
On the field, we’ve seen the Chicago Cubs (27-9 record) pushing teams around like they’re playing in the International League, the ChiSox’ Chris Sale (8-0) running up victories like he’s Bob Welch (finished 27-6) in 1990, a shortstop, Aldemys Diaz, of the Cardinals trails David Ortiz and Bryce Harper for third place in OPS at 1.063 a la the way Albert Pujols used to, and the Nationals’ Daniel Murphy (currently hitting exactly .400 through 37 games) chasing a .400 batting average. That’s a great mix of unpredictable stats! Off the field however, there has been a lot of mixed debates about baseball’s rules. Here we go!
We’ve heard about ‘all’ of the PEDs suspensions and whether the punishments are harsh enough. WARNING: We’re not going to spend much space on this one (you’re welcome). There’s been roughly a handful of suspensions this year. That’s less than three-quarters of one percent of the players (and even less when considering everyone who’s appeared in the majors thus far). For effect, here it is in numerical form: 0.69%. Keep the numbers in perspective and don’t the ‘regular’ news people Chicken-Little this one to death. With every suspension, they act like it’s the first pro athlete ever to be called for a big timeout with no pay. Everyone wanted baseball to be like the other sports in this regard and it has been for quite a long while now and it also has a wider range of banned substances. So when a suspension is announced, it needs to be just another day like it is in the other sports. It’s newsworthy sure, but far from earth shattering. There’s big money at stake on both the players’ and clubs’ end of the business, and fragile player confidence levels to boot. There are rules, and they will be broken. That’s a fact. No need to think the game needs revamping with each announcement. OK, all done with this one.
Another rule we’d really like to discuss is the ground-rule double rule. I know, this is a real fine point to the game. We’re trying to bring some fresh topics about, no matter how large or small. And any discussion concerning a rule revision, potentially brings along the hated and despised ‘judgment call’ that football, i.e. pass interference, is so infamous for. Warning #2, this case does include that risk. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wondered about the ground rule, and here’s the situation that made me finally write about it. A week ago Sunday night, the BoSox were in the Bronx and up four to nothing in the 7th with lefty Jackie Bradley Jr. at bat and Brock Holt on first with two outs and a two and two count. “Twos all around,” said the ump. Or at least he should have said that. Anyway, the very speedy Holt took off on the pitch. Bradley Jr. swung and sliced the delivery the opposite way down the left field line. The ball landed fair and then jumped into the left field foul seats on the first or second bounce. First bounce, I believe. By the time the ball was out of play, Holt was a couple of steps past second base. Meanwhile, the fielder, the also very fast Brett Gardner, was still no where near the ball due to being shaded toward center since Bradley Jr. was swinging from the left side. Holt scores easily on this non-play if the ball caroms off the side wall and stays in the field of play. Instead, he is ordered back to third as part of the ground-rule double rule.
Next, with Bradley Jr. and Holt in scoring position, catcher Ryan Hanigan proceeds to strikeout to end the inning. No run ever goes up on the scoreboard thanks to the ground-rule double rule. No runs, get your mitts boys, and time for some D. Now, I’m not suggesting a change that would involve an interpretation of the rules from the umps, rather just a bit of tracking the runner by the umpires while also tracking the ball. It’s nearly identical to making an out/safe call at first base. Here’s how it would work in this case. If Holt is past second when the ball leaves the field and no fielder is even close to scooping up the ball to initiate a relay, shouldn’t Holt be awarded home? Remember, this guy is lightning quick and left for second base on the pitch. Plus, there were two outs so he had no obligation to watch for and potentially scamper back to first base in the event of a caught line drive. Here, the first and second base umpires could use their viewing angles to determine Holt’s position, whether he was past the bag or not. If he’s past the bag, real fast, AND the fielder is nowhere near the ball, let’s let the run stand. I know it requires some judgment, but perhaps it’s closer to a calculation. Then, there would be no need for a deflating jog back to third. And no, Bradley Jr. doesn’t get the same treatment and awarded third because he had to run much further after contact just to get to sedond and if the ball stays in play, there’s no chance he even thinks about going to third base on a ball down the left field line. OK, let the debates begin.
Lastly, we witnessed the inevitable this past Sunday as the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays played their last regular season game for the ’16 season. Following the teams’ dramatic, emotional, and five game winner-take-all Division Series in last year’s playoffs, we knew there would be some type of extra-curricular activities during one of their seven contests this year. I’m not exactly sure why though. Perhaps we can sort it out though. In the playoffs, Texas lost the deciding game in Toronto after winning the first two games in Toronto. Up two games to none and then drop three?? That’s a colossal collapse folks! In the 2015 D.S., we know there were plenty of bat flips by batters after several key hits, fist pumps by pitchers, and primal screams by both. And there must have been some bar-speak trash talk going on too from the dugouts to add fuel. That’s all cool. We like intensity. After all, it was the playoffs! Can you say instant rivalry?!
Well, to get back to it, in Sunday’s game Toronto trailed 7-6 at Texas in the eighth. Jose Bautista, the man who had the last, most important, and series-deciding bat flip last year following a Game 5 seventh inning bomb came to the plate with one out. Texas is presumably still mad about that. Wah, wah for them. Get over it already. Back to Sunday, Bautista had doubled earlier in the game and had three RBI. Matt Bush, called up just two days prior to make his MLB debut after spending 3.5 years in prison for a DUI hit and run, was on the mound for the Rangers. He immediately plunked Bautista with a pitch that was way up and in. I don’t care what Bush or the Rangers say (if anyone ever says anything specific), it was NOT a mistake. For the Rangers, Bautista is the guy who virtually ended your season last year, it’s the last game of the new season against the Jays, and you’ve got a hard throwing new guy on the hill to ‘mask’ the retaliation beaning. And you’re at home and up by a run in the eighth. Flat out, they said it’s time for payback of showing them up and they drilled him. OK, that’s their decision. Bautista was overly emphatic with the bat flip last year and acted as though his home run was of the walk off variety when it was still just the seventh inning. I don’t like the timing, but I’m OK with the plunking.
What I am not OK with is what happened next. With one out, Bautista was still on first when Justin Smoak hit a double play grounder to Adrian Beltre on the left side. Now, the unwritten rules about baseball say (you can’t read them, they’re not written) that if your slugger gets drilled, the other team’s middle infielders better watch their legs at second base. That’s the way it works folks. Well, Bautista slid hard and later than normal. It was a legal slide except that he ended up going off the back side of the bag (bad mistake). Our new written rule now makes that slide illegal. However, prior to that even happening let alone realized, second baseman Rougned Odor, perhaps in equal parts anticipation and disgust, aimed his double play turn throw to first base extremely too low and at Bautista’s head. Watch the replay closely and you can see that his errant throw is wild prior to any contact by Bautista or any deflection off his helmet, etc. That’s bush-league baseball. I don’t care if the guy danced around the bases backwards and with his shirt off last year. That’s ridiculous and beyond stupid. As a commissioner, I’d give Odor ten games on the bench just for that throw. In addition, Odor then initiates contact after the slide with a shove. Naturally, Bautista is ready to square up as he has to be thinking it’s on now. BRAWL GAME!! However, he didn’t get the chance to shove or punch back as Odor probably figured he better hurry and get the first shot in as he is much smaller than Bautista, and he proceeded to absolutely ROCK Bautista with a right handed punch to the jaw. POW!! After that, Beltre played peacemaker and held Bautista aside, which protected Odor, but the melee and shoving and wrestling was a go for the other sixty players and coaches. It was exciting and ugly!
However exciting or newsworthy as this event may be, it shouldn’t happen. At least not like that. Supposedly, today’s younger players are OK with showing more emotion via the bat flip, fist pumping, and yelling and carrying on. I guess that’s fine as long as everyone is willing to take their medicine when they don’t get it done and the other team is whooping it up at their expense. Personally, I like the subtlety of seeing a guy at least act like he knew he could do it and who also acts like he’s done THAT before as a result. The look of a real pro like it ain’t his first time, ya know? The younger guys need to decide if they really do want the new unwritten rules to be set such that you can carry on like a borderline jackass and not get beaned or taken out afterwards. If so, when they’re down and out, they shouldn’t be looking to bean the guy who partied on their dime. Otherwise, I suggest the players stick to the time-tested old school version of the unwritten rules where you wanted to show you belonged by acting like you’ve belonged for years. This will reduce the flare ups and remove any doubt about who is going to get plunked and why. There’s more clarity in the old rules. Maybe those players of past generations were smart enough to realize that less b.s. is actually more fun in the long run. Which is not to say that they didn’t ‘meet’ at the mound on occasion too. It gets hot out there and guys are competing hard. It’s going to happen from time to time regardless of the version of rules. After all, boys will be boys.
Later Baseball Fans.