Written by Jeff Gordon at STLToday.com
It didn’t take long for the new Chase Utley Rule to make news in baseball. The Tampa Bay Rays gained a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays thanks to the crackdown on interference with fielders at second base.
Rule 6.01 states that a runner can’t change his “pathway for the purpose of initiating contact with a fielder.” This wording was inspired by Utley’s destructive takeout of then-Mets (and current Cardinals) shortstop Ruben Tejada.
Toronto baserunner Jose Bautista didn’t slide away from second base to plow into Rays second baseman Logan Forsythe. He wasn’t reckless in his bid to break up a double play. He didn’t put Forsythe in danger.
But he did appear to reach for Forsythe’s leg with his arm. . . and Forsythe committed a two-run throwing error that gave the Blue Jays a 4-3 lead. Rays manager Kevin Cash challenged the play and, upon further review, the umpires called Bautista for interference, took the runs off the board and handed Tampa Bay the victory.
Toronto manager John Gibbons was none too pleased with the replay reversal. “Maybe we’ll come out wearing dresses tomorrow,” he sniffed. “Maybe that’s what everybody’s looking for.”
And . . .
“It’s a shame. I get the intent, you go after somebody, you hurt somebody, I get that. But that’s good baseball, that has been baseball forever. Maybe they just want them to run and get out of the way. I don’t know.”
And . . .
“Are we trying to turn the game into a joke?” Gibbons asked rhetorically.
ESPN.com’s David Schoenfield advised today’s players to deal with the rule and appreciate the fact that Major League Baseball is looking out for their safety:
Look, I also get the cadre of ex-ballplayers hating on the new rule, even if that’s like listening to the old-time hockey guys talk about the glory days of fighting. Nobody likes to the see the game they played start to change. But what happens when we let players manage their own game? We get guys sliding four feet off the bag and half-jumping into defenseless fielders and breaking their legs; we get pitchers giving up home runs and then throwing at the next batter out of frustration, which leads to more hit batters and so on; we get some players upset at bat flips because the game needs to be played their way . . .
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