Last night Major League Baseball’s chief baseball officer, Joe Torre announced that Dodgers infielder Chase Utley was suspended for game three and four of the National League Division Series. In the seventh inning of Saturday night’s game, Utley went hard into second base to break up a double play, and wound up breaking Ruben Tejada’s leg, thereby ending the Mets shortstop’s season.
Torre, a former big league player and manager, had already explained that he thought Utley’s slide was late—i.e., he waited too long before hitting the deck. I think that’s probably true. But Torre’s issue then is with the umpires, who have the prerogative of calling out a runner who deliberately tries to go after a fielder to try to break up a double play. Indeed, Utley was so wide of the bag that he failed to touch second base. The umpires called Utley safe, reasoning that Tejada never touched the bag. The umpires blew the call and failed to enforce a rule. That’s not Utley’s fault—nor is he to blame for Tejada’s injury.
It’s true that Utley has a history of sliding hard into second base to break up double plays. In fact, he upended Tejada just last year (as this video shows) on a hard slide, but the Mets infielder managed to complete the double play. Some of the other clips from the video show that Utley also has a habit of wandering too far into the outfield to find infielders on the double play, but that’s something umpires already have the tools to deal with, since there is a rule discouraging runners from veering out of the baseline that allows the umpire to call an automatic double play. As MLB Rule 7.09 (e) stipulates: “If, in the judgment of the umpire, a runner willfully and deliberately interferes with a batted ball or a fielder in the act of fielding a batted ball with the obvious intent to break up a double play, the ball is dead. The umpire shall call the runner out for interference and also call out the batter-runner because of the action of his teammate.”
Others, implicitly backing Torre’s decision, argue that’s not enough. As Wall Street Journal writer Brian Costa contends, baseball needs to do more to protect infielders. That might be true, but the reality is that in this particular case, the infielder was responsible for protecting himself. Ruben Tejada is a very fine big league shortstop but it was he who made himself vulnerable to an injury that could have been prevented.
Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy gave Tejada a less than optimal feed, tossing the relay behind his double play partner so that the shortstop had to reach over his left shoulder for the ball. Presumably, Tejada believed the only way to turn the double play was to follow the leftward momentum into an improvised pirouette and spin around with a throw. It would have made a wonderfully acrobatic highlight video had his throw completed the double play. But Tejada should have never tried to finish the play. Instead, he should have eaten the ball and gotten out of Utley’s way, satisfied with the force at second. And that’s because the cardinal rule for middle infielders on the double play is never turn your back on the incoming base runner.
Middle infielders learn this principle in youth baseball, long before they get to the professional ranks. If you turn your back on the incoming runner, you’re putting yourself at risk. This is one reason why it’s harder, and more dangerous, for the second baseman to turn the double play than it is for the shortstop. At second, you have to square yourself to receive the relay from short or third so you’re always giving some of your back to the runner, which means you have to be very aware of where he is out of the corner of your eye. It’s easier to turn two from short because you can fully see the runner all the way from first. Also, the shortstop has his own form of deterrence: the runner knows he is coming straight at one of the best arms on the field, cocked and loaded with a projectile that is about to be thrown extremely hard at the very place from where the runner has just come and now stands as an obstacle. If the base runner values his face, he will get out of the way in any way possible.
That’s how infielders watch out for themselves. If, on the other hand, an infielder turn his back on a runner, he makes his entire body vulnerable to injury, even if the base runner has no intention of doing him harm. In this instance, even had Utley come straight into second with a relatively gentle slide, Tejada might have gotten badly hurt. The shortstop’s feet were planted right around second base, and that’s the second rule middle infielders learn about the double play—be very careful planting your feet, lest you make yourself susceptible to a very bad injury.
For instance, Pittsburgh Pirates’ shortstop Jung Ho Kang’s season ended in September after the Cubs’ Chris Coghlan went in hard on a double play chance. Coghlan’s apparently legitimate but very aggressive slide (here’s the video) tore up the Korean rookie’s knee, after he planted his left leg to throw to complete the double play. Coghlan expressed regret that Kang got injured—”It’s an unfortunate circumstance,” said the Cubbie. “I hate that he’s hurt. I really do. I sent him over a letter. I hope he’s OK.” In turn, Kang released a statement declining to blame Coghlan. “It is unfortunate that what would be considered heads up baseball would cause such a serious injury,” Kang said. “That said, Coghlan was playing the game the way it should be played. I’m confident he meant me no harm.”
These aren’t the days of Ty Cobb, when some ballplayers were looking to hurt their colleagues. But they’re still professional athletes who are playing hard to beat each other. Moreover, in spite of rules rightly intended to protect the ballplayers, the size and speed of 21st-century athletes further increases the risks in the middle of the diamond. It can get dangerous in there, which is why middle infielders are taught to protect and defend themselves.
For instance, the reason middle infielders jump after throwing the relay on the double play isn’t to leapfrog over the incoming runner like an Olympic hurdler—though it’s cool when you can do it!—but to get even an inch off the ground so that if you get hit the worst injury you suffer is a bruise rather than a break. An additional upside to the jump is that the middle infielder can land all elbows and knees on the sliding base runner to remind him that the infielder is also capable of delivering bruises. And if the base runner is a real jerk who has a habit of looking to actually injure infielders, you might give him a taste of his own medicine and come down leading with spikes.
As a middle infielder himself, Utley knows all this. Indeed, when he was with the Phillies, Utley was one of the game’s premier second baseman. He always played hard, but I doubt very strongly that he’s looking to hurt opponents, especially other middle infielders. In fact, unlike American League pitchers who can throw at hitters with impunity knowing that no one can throw at their heads in return, Utley understands that his opponents know just where to find him—right there in the middle of the infield and as vulnerable as anyone on the double play pivot. And even when he’s not in the field but is coming off the bench to hit, shortstops and second baseman can still tame him and make him hit the deck fast. There’s nothing that discourages a base runner from coming into second hard like seeing a big-league middle infielder drop down under and throw the relay to first from a submarine angle.
I think Torre made a mistake. I hope that the Mets can forget about Utley’s slide, though they’re understandably upset—they lost their shortstop. They’re a good club, but can’t afford to get further distracted with a key man down.
