First off – got to hand it to the Dodgers fans. Ala Patriots fans with Deflategate, they are working the internet and coming up with every inconsistency they can find when it comes to the punishment of their guy.
At some point, Utleys appeal will be heard. Which means at some point his side will present their case of why they believe no suspension is warranted. Which means the league will then decide what to do.
You can darn well bet that Utleys appeal will include rolling tapes of rolling slides that did not result in a suspension. There will be no short supply. Utley could even use his own non-suspension for this slide, though I think that would be highly inadvisable.
But while I think we can all agree that takeout slides from the 1972 World Series have no bearing, I do think it is going to get very problematic for MLB as the examples get closer to present day. Joe Torre was in charge of punishment when Matt Holliday did this in the playoffs
And he most certainly was in charge when Didi Gregorius had this collison 5 days before Utley
To be clear, I am not pulling a Don Mattingly here – takeout slides are wrong and need to go. And MLB has certainly held to punishments in the past despite lack of precedent. But Joe Torre has to know that at some point, he is going to have to explain why he is suspending Utley, and apparently never even considered it for Gregorious or Holliday. Or any of the other players Dodger fans will uncertainly dig up very soon.
Should be interesting
Fan Interference 
Not to mention the takeout slide that took out the Pirates second baseman just a few weeks ago.
http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v485731983
I agree, the slides are all dirty and need to stop, but I worry this suspension was more about looking like you are doing something and trying to prevent retaliation on the big screen than it is anything else. Hopefully this at the very least gets the conversation started (See what I did there?), and we can see some actual changes int he off-season.
LikeLike
I totally agree.
Of course – as those diligent Dodger fans will point out, even Jung Ho Kang isn’t perfectly clean when it comes to slides. No injury, but how far out is too far, especially when spikes are up ion the air
Create a sliding lane, define it, work with the players. Then wait for Joe Madden to complain about the lane
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh, Cubs fans were pointing that out within 0.5 seconds of Coghlan breaking Kang’s leg.
One difference, Kang actually hits the dirt in front of the player, barely, Coghlan was still in the air when he made contact….still both slides were crap, against the rules and should have resulted in automatic double plays according to rules already on the books.
LikeLike
Of course that is what the suspension was about…just like the NFLs knee jerk approach to players…..just make it up as you go along and hope for the best. If the suspension is overturned, they still view it as a PR win…even is the suspension was not merited to begin with.
The suspension is irrelevant to me, as long as they do something to keep these unnecessary injuries from happening.
LikeLike
I argued this point with Historio last night. I agree these slides need to go the way of catcher collisions. I agree that the books already contain rules that simply need to be enforced. My issue is that after dozens of these slides all season, Utley is being arbitrarily punished for something that was done routinely by him and others all year.
Selective enforcement of a rule is worse than no enforcement. Either it gets enforced or it does not, and everyone should be made aware of that change ahead of time.
LikeLike
Yeah, well Craig agrees with me, so there. Personal responsibility.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Man, I remember back in the day when Craig’s agreement was actually a form of validation….
LikeLiked by 5 people
I remember back in the day when I actually knew what Craig’s opinion was.
LikeLiked by 1 person
PS I still think it’s ridiculous to argue that just because MLB hasn’t punished these things before means we shouldn’t. There’s nothing wrong with starting a good precedent to use.
LikeLike
Precedents need to be started, I agree. But at a minimum, MLB should explain why they didn’t do anything 5 days earlier on a play that was more or less identical.
LikeLike
Perhaps they did address it with the umps and advise them that kind of thing was not okay and the umps failed to crack down as asked. Or, they are concerned that it’s becoming more frequent or flagrant, so they are going to finally do something (after people have complained for awhile). But, let’s not pretend that the post-season doesn’t have more on the line, so the implications are more significant.
LikeLike
So in a span of 5 days, we go from nary a peep to 2 game suspension, because enough was enough. Possible in theory, but it still deserves clarification. What as done after the Gregorious incident? Becasue as of know, it appears nothing was done. If they had soem inetrnal discussion, let us into the inner workings. If they want to send a message to the players, then let them know its not just Utley – Gregorius was in danger of suspension as well.
If any of that happened after that incident
LikeLike
IDK why fans feel entitled to know about all personnel actions. You aren’t. I don’t have any idea why it would bother you that they decided to draw a line in the sand. It’s a good thing. I wish they’d done it sooner. I won’t complain whenever it happens.
LikeLike
I didn’t say I am entitled. I am asking questions – what is the problem with that? I am also saying that it sure as heck looks like that Torre did not give a rats rear-end after the Gregorious incident. And I am saying that is wrong, because what Gregorious did is dangerous
LikeLike
He didn’t give a rat’s rear end after the Posey thing either. It may be a pissed off owner driving this…or enough pissed off owners. Either way, I’m glad if they are making a change.
LikeLike
I think its wrong if players are permitted to do something all season and then all of a sudden without warning they are penalized for it, especially in a playoff game when losing a player is incredibly critical. There were numerous points this season that could have set a ‘precedent’ without taking a star out of a team’s lineup during the playoffs. That is unnecessarily punitive.
LikeLike
It’s “unnecessarily” where you lose me. I don’t feel bad that he’s getting punished for that — and having gotten away with it before is a BS reason to do that intentionally to another player when you KNOW you can injure them doing it. That’s crap.
LikeLike
When every single player has ‘gotten away with it’ for quite literally decades, it is completely reasonable to state “He was playing by the effective rules, and the written rules were not relevant.”
Again, I’m not defending the slide, and I am all for clarifying the lanes for runners and making it as against the rules as contact with the catcher. But doing it suddenly after ignoring it for almost the entire history of the sport is unfair and unwarranted to the player who happened to be unfortunate enough to be the one who did something players have done for more than 100 years without being called for it.
As for the rest, I’m not willing to invent random narratives about theoretical behind the scenes MLB moves. That is conspiracy theory BS, anyone can invent any narrative they want to ‘explain’ any action they do not have a full explanation for. There is zero evidence that this was anything more than “there was a fan outcry and MLB overreacted, as they have done quite a bit of since Selig first became commissioner.”
LikeLike
This procrastinating and lollygagging and shillyshallying is impedistymifying. Everyone except Don Mattingly knows that Utley deserves to die for this. Slowly. Painfully. Publicly – like one of those multiple executions at Tyburn in the good old days, but crass, with little pushcarts selling balloons for the kids and non-Halal hotdogs with pork.
MLB better find a way to create some interest, because nobody is ackcherley watching the games anymore.
LikeLike