WASHINGTON — Chase Utley is a dirty player.
That was the strong narrative pushed on one side in the aftermath of Utley’s leg-breaking launch into Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada, for which he was not only punished by being called for obstruction, but actually rewarded when Tejada’s foot was off the base in a neighborhood play, turning two outs into none and opening the door for Dodgers comeback win.
https://twitter.com/lamelaza_7/status/653053550117818370
I'm very angry about that brutal dirty slide and confused as to how someone can be ruled safe without touching a base????
— Anthony Recker (@Anthony_Recker) October 11, 2015
Chase Utley is just a gamer, playing within the boundaries of the rules to help his team.
This is the view supported on the other side of the argument, by those from former teammate Shane Victorino to ESPN commentator and former pitcher Mark Mulder, on Utley’s takeout slide into second base that prevented Tejada from turning a double play, keying a four-run Dodgers outburst in a crucial Game 2 win.
Always called him one of my toughest teammates…Utley showing why I always called him a winner!!! #MLBPlayoffs
— Shane Victorino (@ShaneVictorino) October 11, 2015
Like it or not, Utley plays hard and I would want him on my team.
— Mark Mulder (@markmulder20) October 11, 2015
It’s all a matter of perspective. The rule book is ambiguously worded, leaving too much room for interpretation, and broken legs. That is why MLB Executive VP for Baseball Operations Joe Torre stepped in and levied a two-game suspension on Utley.
“After thoroughly reviewing the play from all conceivable angles, I have concluded that Mr. Utley’s action warrants discipline,” said Torre in an official news release announcing the punishment. “While I sincerely believe that Mr. Utley had no intention of injuring Ruben Tejada, and was attempting to help his Club in a critical situation, I believe his slide was in violation of Rule 5.09(a)(13), which is designed to protect fielders from precisely this type of rolling block that occurs away from the base.
In case you’re not intimately acquainted with every letter of the MLB rule book, here is the exact wording of that one:
(A batter is out when) 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.
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.
Being left to the umpires, they ruled in favor of Utley, just as they ruled in favor of Scott Cousins in 2011, when his takeout slide broke Buster Posey’s ankle. That prompted a rule change, but no suspension, because nobody had ever been suspended for such an action.
Regardless of what you think of the particulars of the Utley-Tejada play, from a strictly legal perspective, is suspending Utley fair? It sounds like punishing one player for something that isn’t even necessarily a crime, when there is no precedent to do so. It sounds like Torre overstepping the bounds of his role.
It sounds, dare I say, downright Goodellian.
Joe Torre is not an idiot. He is a man who has spent his life playing and managing and, now, overseeing the game of baseball from an administrative role. He knows that takeout slides have happened since before he ever played the game, and that nobody has ever been suspended for doing so. He knows that the Major League Baseball Players Association is one of the strongest unions in the entire country, almost always able to get league suspensions that are far more concretely warranted reduced or even thrown out entirely.
Why, then, would Torre levy a suspension that goes against the call the umpires made on the field, one that is almost certain to be overturned on appeal once it is ever heard, which may be at too late a time to even matter?
Because this isn’t about the suspension. It’s about taking the morally righteous side of the argument (don’t have a rule book that allows players to break other players’ legs without recourse) in order to enact future change. It’s about getting the MLBPA to the table to rewrite the rules more clearly and prevent future situations like this from occurring.
After the suspension came down, Torre went live on the air with Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal in the middle of a playoff game to explain his decision, and said that he “can’t be worried about what happened in the past” in regard to punishment. Of course, that’s exactly what he needs to worry about in regards to the two game penalty actually being upheld. Which only further supports the notion that this isn’t really what all this hand-wringing is about.
In fairness to due process, the union needs more than 24 or 48 hours to put together their case. That likely pushes any hearing on the matter past the end of this series, when the suspension would really matter. Utley is allowed to play in the meantime. With the Dodgers facing elimination heading into Tuesday night’s game, Utley’s team may not even be around for him to play by the time the hearing happens.
These are all things that Torre knows as well. And they all point to the fact that the suspension was a figurative gesture meant to enact much more meaningful change at a later date, when heads are cooler, and when the conversation is no longer about whether or not the slide was legal, but instead how to prevent it from happening again in the future.
