Quote:
Originally posted by CoachJM
DG,
I believe there is a material difference. In the Rose/Fosse play, Fosse was actually in between Rose and the plate. He had to go through him to get to the plate.
In this play, Estrada is set up in front of (i.e. to the pitcher's mound side of) the plate and is not in between Erstad and the plate. Erstad changes his path to move away from the plate and into Estrada in what appears to be an intentional move to knock the ball loose while making no effort to touch the plate - until after he had take out Estrada.
JM
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Rose made no attempt to reach the plate. He could have slid to try to knock Fosse off his feet, or tried to slide by him and reach out for the plate. He saw his path was blocked and his intent was to knock the ball away from Fosse, even if he had to injure him to do so. Where they were set up has nothing to do with this. Both were malicious collisions.
I can only assume that major league catchers, as a group, do not make enough money for owners, and/or the players association, to be concerned about losing this valuable commmodity and insist that the rules be changed. Perhaps the college rule would save some catcher's careers (ie Fosse), or at least not put them on the disabled list for a period of time. Can you imagine paying A-Rod money to a catcher and having the prospect of losing him to malicous contact? Can you imagine some of the best pitchers in the game being subjected to this, ie Clemens, Johnson, Maddux. What if one of these guys was covering home on a pass ball, and a runner from 3B ran them over with malicious intent? Would the rules change? It seems acceptable in MLB to run over catchers, and possibly end their careers. It is simply amazing to me!!
[Edited by DG on Jun 7th, 2005 at 01:07 AM]