Can we work this out?
On the heels of the Eric Aybar play on Saturday night, Matthew Pouliot of NBC Sports examines how the neighborhood play came into existence, and whether it should be allowed to continue. He writes:
The neighborhood play exists because it’s dangerous standing on top of a base when a runner is set to do everything possible to prevent a relay throw. Far too dangerous. Middle infielders need protection, especially second basemen, who can’t see the runner coming from first. That double play turn is, in my opinion, the biggest reason why second basemen tend to have short careers.
So, it’s either keep the neighborhood play or rein in the baserunners. I prefer the latter option. Baseball was not a sport designed for collisions. Accidents will happen, but MLB can further discourage contact if it wishes. First, enforce the rule that says runners are called out if they don’t slide towards the bag. Most runners these days won’t even reach out towards the bag to even give the impression that they’re trying to touch second base when their legs are five feet off to the right. Call it.
Furthermore, the intentional overslide of the bag, an even more dangerous play, has to stop. Melky Cabrera performed just a modest overslide on Aybar, yet the shortstop still ended up taking a forearm to the thigh and a helmet to the groin. We see far worse every day, and there’s just no reason for it.
If a player intentionally overslides the bag, he should be called out. If he pulls off the Orlando Cabrera “slide into the bag, pop up and try to forearm the shortstop in the face” maneuver, he should be ejected.
Reigning in the base runners sounds nice, but I doubt it will have any effect to automatically call them out if they fail to slide properly. That base runner coming into second base usually knows that he’s going to be out either way. The whole point of a barrel roll slide is to disrupt the double play and affect the Second Baseman’s throw to First base. Calling a base runner out automatically would prove to be little deterrent.
Ejecting a player would be effective deterrent, but too draconian an option. Now you would leave it up to Umpires to have to decide which slides are OK and which aren’t, making the slide into 2B something of a beauty contest. Too vague, too much discretion for the Umps and therefore too open to second guessing by Managers, Sportswriters, fans and pretty much everyone except the guy who made the call. It’s a great way to make everyone unhappy.
All totaled, I think Baseball gets it right by allowing ‘the neighborhood’ play. Just try to make it look good.
Photo courtesy of The NY Daily News
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8 Responses to Could 'the Neighborhood' use some gentrification?
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TIQ IQ
One of my first yankees games was in 1993 when the Indians hit into what appeared to be an inning ending double play in the top of the first with the bases loaded. Mattingly rolled the ball back to the mound and the Yanks walked off the field as three runs scored that inning because the short stop (Valarde I think) did not touch 2nd base. Yanks lost 3-1 that day and we were all upset. Valarde came much closer to 2nd base that day (I watched the replay like 4 million times) then Aybar did Sat night/Sun morning. Problem is MLB does not appear to have a phantom tag or neighborhood rule in the rule book (at least I can’t find it). While I am happy the call didn’t affect this game’s outcome (like it did at the game I was at as it is much better to win a game cleanly), the call strictly speaking is correct. Aybar did not touch the bag and he was more concerned with getting the throw to first quickly than avoiding the sliding runner. BTW the umpire at the game I was at is now a crew cheif – Tim Tscheida (and he has made a number of “make-up” calls for us in playoff games).
Thanks for the thoughtful reply, interesting stuff.
Great photo. This would have been a monstrous issue if it had contributed to the Yankee win, so baseball is getting a bit of a pass here. It’s an interesting debate and you articulated both sides very well.
I’m not crazy about the vagueness of the edict to “make it look good,” but the other option isn’t great either. There is something sublime about the special second baseman or shortstop who can whip the ball sidearm as he glides across the bag to avoid the runner or the classic leap over the sliding runner. I think the neighborhood needs to at least be tightened up a little. In this era of emphasis of big, powerful middle infielders, we’ve lost a lot of the artistry of that position.
Interesting counterpoint to your article in the NY Times today, here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/sports/baseball/19umpire.html.
“There is no such thing as the neighborhood play,” said Rich Garcia, a Major League Baseball umpire supervisor for seven years after spending 25 years in blue. “You either touch the base or you don’t.”
Mike Port, baseball’s vice president in charge of umpiring echoed those sentiments as well. They both said that the neighborhood play is a myth and if a player is called out when the infielder misses the bag it’s just simply a blown call, not a hidden rule.
I don’t believe them. If I was him, I’d answer the same way whether it was true or not.
Think about it, if they say ‘yeah, it’s OK to have your foot off the bag’ then they’re admitting to not enforcing the rule. They can’t say that, they’d lose too much credibility. They don’t want to be viewed as stretching the rules or even worse, being unable to see everything at all times. Of course they can’t always see everything, but admitting it publicly makes them look bad.
How we’ll ever be able to distinguish between intentional and unintentional is beyond me. Also, how do you prevent “oversliding.” I get what he’s saying but that’s equally unenforceable.
It’s not an out if he isn’t on the bag, if you want t make the 2nd baseman safer tell them to not turn the double play and just set up for one out otherwise stop bitching!
exactly!!!!!!!!!