Over the weekend an incident occurred between Chase Utley of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Ruben Tejada of the New York Mets. If you’re somehow not already well aware of what happened, I’ll give you the brief details. Utley was running from first to second after a ball was put in play. He then slid into second base with the intent of breaking up a double play. In doing so, he collided with Tejada and literally sent him spinning. As a result, Tejada suffered a broken leg. Afterwards, Major League Baseball issued a 2 game suspension to Utley when it was deemed his slide was in violation of a particular rule.
The violation was of Rule 5.09 (a) (13). You know that one right? Of course you don’t. Worry not. I wouldn’t know what it was without looking it up myself. Section 5.09 of the official rules of baseball is in regards to “Making an Out.” This particular portion of the rule says:
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
So basically you cannot intentionally interfere with a fielder. This is of course problematic when we’re talking about slides into second base. Doing so to break up a double play is standard operating procedure in baseball. When done “right”, contact either isn’t made or is incidental. But how does one differentiate unintentional from intentional contact?
Even Joe Torre — the Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations for Major League Baseball — admits that such a distinction is “extremely difficult” to distinguish. Here’s my observation on the matter: It’s only extremely difficult to determine because there is no definition or explanation of what a proper slide constitutes.
I think what needs to happen here is a simple clarification of the already existing rule regarding non-interference with a fielder. Define what a proper slide looks. I have some ideas of what that should entail.
1. A proper slide into second base after which a ball has been put in play can occur no closer than X distance from the bag.
This is where some of the issues with the Utley side arose. His slide was very late. He was essentially still running when he reached second base. That’s a little overboard if you ask me. I’m not saying he was intentionally trying to hurt Tejada. I think he just wanted to break up the play. It was dirty, but not malicious. But because he slid so late, he brought his full force into Tejada. Sliding sooner slows the runner down and lowers impact. To help identify when to slide, I propose a line or other marker be made on the field similar to the foul lines and the batter’s box. This helps the runner, the fielder, and the umpire. It limits confusion and ambiguity. (Sidenote: I wrote “X distance” because I don’t have any idea what a proper distance might be but for the sake of argument the detail isn’t important)
2. The baserunner must slide keeping his body straight and parallel with the baseline unless momentum or impact adjusts his body.
Often you’ll see guys slide into second and at the last second pivot their upper or lower body in some way to disrupt the fielder. It’s intentional but not egregious enough to violate Rule 5.09 (a) (13). I say eliminate the ambiguity as much as possible.
3. The runner must slide within X distance of the base.
Again, this is already kind of part of existing rules. As he is sliding, the runner must be close enough that he can touch the base. I think this is still too ambiguous. A guy can pivot and roll and do a lot of things and still technically be able to reach out and touch the base. Let’s just define a lane precisely–X distance whatever MLB decides it should be. Again they can use some kind of markings to distinguish this lane to eliminate ambiguity and human error.
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That’s it. Pretty simple. It’s not even really a modification to an existing rule. More than anything it’s just clarification. I don’t think it’s possible to entirely eliminate contact in these sorts of situations but by better defining what a legal slide into second base is we can probably lessen the dangerous collisions.
