Chase Utley suspended 2 games for slide into Ruben Tejada, will appeal

[bluestateguy]

http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2015/story/_/id/13866872/chase-utley-suspended-2-games-slide-broke-ruben-tejada-leg

Mark Saxon, ESPN Staff Writer

NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball has suspended Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Chase Utley for Games 3 and 4 of the National League Division Series for what the league deemed was an illegal slide into New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada.

Tejada broke his leg in the collision in the seventh inning of Saturday night's Game 2.

Utley will appeal the suspension. The Dodgers expect the matter to be heard quickly, likely well before game time Monday night, a source said.

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[Initech]

1. That's it???? Lame.

Utley should be suspended for the rest of the playoffs and all the umpires and officiators who called that should be fired or suspended. Baseball has the worst officiating of any major sport.

[ThePhilosopher04]

2. He shouldn't be suspended at all.

What he did was perfectly legal by the rules and an accepted part of the game for over 100 years. Had Tejada not broken his leg, there would be no suspension and we wouldn't be talking about it today. Now, if you want to argue that the rules should be changed, that's a different issue, but to suspend Utley now is ridiculous and unfair.

[onenote]

3. The relevant rule and the real reason for the 2 game suspension

The runner is out if:

Rule 5.09 (13) 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;
(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.

Judgment call per the rules.

The reason for the suspension? To avoid the obvious security issues that would be associated with putting Utley on the field in New York the next two games.

[cherokeeprogressive]

4. Your last paragraph says a lot about New York fans!

At this point, Utley's just a pinch-hitter anyway. Howie Kendrick is healthy.

If I were Donny Baseball, I'd take Utley aside and ask him to sit the suspension and not be a distraction, and not allow New York fans to MAKE Utley a distraction.

[jaysunb]

5. +1 n/t

[hardluck]

6. Ty Cobb is spinning in his grave.

[trumad]

9. And Ty Cobb was a dirty fucker who would get his ass kicked today.

Utley was way out of line---excuse the pun.

[LittleBlue]

7. What he did was vicious and has no place is baseball

That is a brutal tackle that even NFL players avoid. You don't dive into someone's planted leg.

2 games is lenient.

[Blue_Tires]

8. Well, tonight just got a lot less interesting

The bad news is some Dodger(s) other than Utley will take a pitch off the ol' bean tonight...

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

10. Wrong decision by MLB

I have to say I learned the game in the 50's and that is a far cry from today. I also know things grow, evolve and change. But I'm willing to bet, we're the situation reversed, Tejada would do the same thing. No one wants to see a broken leg. But this is a sport played at its highest level. Legislating contact out of the game will speed up its decline. Too bad to, because baseball is the think ingest game there is......

[justiceischeap]

11. As someone who has had their leg broken in 4 places from a cleats high slide

in a recreational co-ed softball league... that wasn't a slide, that was a friggin' tackle.

He took out Tejada's legs with his shoulder/chest area. That isn't sliding... he also intentionally went to take out Tejada, which is evidenced by his not being anywhere near the bag (and never touching the bag with his hand from what I can see in the video).

There's this thing is sports, it's called sportsmanship. You either play with good or bad sportsmanship, that was bad sportsmanship. At the professional level of baseball, you'd hope a player would know how to slide properly.