Clean slide or hard tackle? It's the play that's divided the baseball community for the past week.
With the Los Angeles Dodgers trailing 2-1 to the New York Mets in the bottom of the seventh inning, Howie Kendrick came up to the plate to face Mets' pitcher Bartolo Colon. With runners on first and third and one out, the Mets were hoping for a double play ball to get out of the inning with the lead. They got their wish, as Kendrick hit a sharp ground ball to second baseman Daniel Murphy. Murphy flipped to shortstop Ruben Tejada, who tried to convert the double play, but was taken out by Chase Utley's hard slide.
Upon an initial viewing, it looks like a good, hard baseball play. Takeout slides occur frequently in baseball, where the player trying to throw it to first has to jump to avoid the runner and isn't able to get off a throw.
This one was different, though. Watching the replays, Utley slid late, and at the player, not the bag. As can be seen, Utley didn't even start his slide until he was already nearly on top of base. Tejada, meanwhile, still hadn't managed to get his head around, and had no idea what was coming.
From this angle, Utley clearly isn't sliding for second base; he's sliding to take out Tejada. What will generally happen on these kinds of plays is the runner will slide into the base, but stick his leg up or to the side to force the fielder to evade him. Here, Utley gave Tejada no chance to do so, sliding directly at him from minimal distance.
Furthermore, it's hard to even call what Utley did "sliding". It's more apt to to say that Utley took out Tejada's legs with his body, based on the way the contact was made between the two players. Because of the nasty collision, Tejada was forced to leave the game, and results later came back showing that his leg was broken. Utley ended up being safe on the play, due to Tejada never having touched second base, and the Dodgers would go on to win the game.
Of course, controversy about this play arose immediately on Twitter, with big names like Buster Olney, Keith Law, and Justin Upton offering their opinions. Discussion then followed on every major sports network, and by the next day, Major League Baseball had announced that Utley would be suspended for the next two games of the series.
Despite the fact that Utley appealed the suspension and was eligible to play in those games, the precedent set by MLB will have long-lasting ramifications. In the current age of sports, where injuries are taken more seriously than ever, a play where someone ends up with a broken leg is going to be scrutinized closely. As baseball heads into the offseason, you can expect plenty of talks about this play to occur, and a new rule to be in place by the start of next season.
