I’m here to call out ESPN writer Buster Olney as a baseball pink hat. Let me say I have a lot of respect for Olney as a writer and for his unmitigated love of baseball but this stance he has taken on runner/catcher collisions is beyond outrageous.
In case you missed it, on Wednesday night San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey was run into by Florida Marlins base runner Scott Cousins while blocking home plate and suffered a broken ankle in the collision.
Then this morning I see Olney on Twitter railing against these collisions and how we need rules to protect the catcher. What?
Here are Olney’s Tweets:
@Buster_ESPN: Re Posey: In the big-picture question of risk/reward, the play of blocking home plate, to save one run, is just not worth it. Not even close.
@Buster_ESPN: MLB and the Players Association should step in and ban the play of the catcher blocking home. It’s just not worth it, for anyone involved.
He even goes on to state that the reason is money related:
@Buster_ESPN: The reason for change: $. Posey is a cornerstone investment for SF — and all of that risk for one run? Makes no sense.
@Buster_ESPN: Just filed a news story: Agent for Buster Posey will call MLB and raise idea of rule changes regarding collisions between runners/fielders.
This is what’s wrong with the NFL. In that sport they’ve put the quarterback’s in a bubble wrap pocket and they protect them. Baseball needs to learn from the NFL’s mistake and not legislate these types of plays.
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Home plate collisions have been in the game forever. As a former catcher I know this first hand. I can not tell you how many times I was run over by guys who towered over me. As a catcher you didn’t want to get hit but you knew it’s part of the game, it’s allowed.
Tim Kurkjian said on ESPN Thursday morning “this is a hard game played by hard men and there should be no rule changes.” He also stated that he doesn’t see MLB’s Joe Torre, a former catcher/tough guy, doing anything to bring up any rule changes.
In fact, the hit Cousins laid on Posey last night was described by one writer as “violent but legal”. Cousins said after the game “Posey was blocking the dish I got to do whatever I can do to score.” It’s sad that Posey, one of the games bright young stars, got hurt but this play is part of the game.
The Ray Fosse-Pete Rose collision in the 1970 All-Star game was violent as well. Fosse, who was an exceptional backstop, was never the same after suffering a separated shoulder. The Carlton Fisk-Leron Lee collision at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland in 1974 was violent too. Fisk tore several knee ligaments and after reconstructive knee surgery was told he’d never play again.
Through baseball history there have been many collisions at the plate, another that comes to mind was when Florida catcher Ivan Rodriguez was run over by San Francisco baserunner J.T. Snow in a playoff game in 2003; he got up smiling showing everyone he held onto the ball.
No one cried for those guys or those like Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, Roy Campanella, Johnny Bench, Thurman Munson, Mike Scoscia and all the great catchers who have been run over in years past. So why the hubbub now? Is this is part of the pacification of sport in America?
Middle infielders have been run over for ages, taken out by baserunners trying to break up double plays. Where’s that legislation? Those same baserunners get the ball thrown at their heads as they barrel down on the second baseman or shortstop. Where’s that legislation?
I agree with Kurkjian 100% you can’t take this play out of the game. I believe MLB won’t but I do find it unsettling that someone as well versed in baseball and its history as Olney feels the need to beat the drum on this. As I told Olney in response to his Tweets “please put your pink hat in the closet. Nobody cried for Fosse, Fisk, et al. That noise you hear is Munson spinning in his grave.”
Follow Steve on Twitter @djstevem
