Editorials

Dodgers News: Chase Utley Suspended 2 Games For Hard Slide

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA Today Sports
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA Today Sports

UPDATE (Oct. 12, 3:55 p.m. PT): According to ESPN’s Buster Olney, prior to suspending Chase Utley, Major League Baseball asked the Los Angeles Dodgers’ infielder to accept a one-game suspension:

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UPDATE (Oct. 12, 9:15 a.m. PT): According to Bill Shaikin of the LA Times, Chase Utley’s appeal will not be heard prior to Game 3 and is unlikely to to be heard before Game 4, leaving Utley eligible to play in both games at Citi Field:

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Major League Baseball announced Sunday evening Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Chase Utley was suspended two games for his slide into second base that resulted in New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada suffering a fractured right fibula.

MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre said after Game 2 of the National League Division series he was going to continue going over replay of the incident and would mull possible disciplinary action.

Torre acknowledged he doesn’t believe Utley intended to injure Tejada, but found the veteran infielder in violation of Rule 5.09 (a) (13), “one designed to protect fielders from precisely this type of rolling block that occurs away from the base,” Torre said in a released statement.

While a suspension has been handed down, Utley will file an appeal, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports:

Utley’s appeal will be expedited, which leaves open the possibility he’d available for Game 3:

Utley appeared off the bench in Games 1 and 2, and is 1-for-2 with one strikeout thus far in the series. However, he’s a career .333/.429/.556 against Matt Harvey, who starts for the Mets in Game 3.

Given that success, it wasn’t beyond reason to believe Utley may have been in position for his first Nation start with the Dodgers. Several of Utley’s teammates came to his defense, pointing to his nature as a hard-nose player.

Mets manager Terry Collins said his clubhouse was upset over the hard slide and believed it would provide an emotional boost.

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17 Comments

  1. Absolute crap! I’m not defending the slide. I’m not even defending if it was dirty or not. This has been going on for YEARS!!! You want to change the rules, fine, but don’t just arbitrarily suspend someone because you are afraid of public opinion.

    MLB is not going to stop until the game takes a “Star Trekian” turn and the game slowly dies away. Sports, especially professional sports, are games of contact, and in games of contact, sometimes bones break!!!

    1. I would agree with you. If this had been the other way around and it was Chase Utley who had been injured, I seriously doubt anything would have happened. This is nothing more than a way to hurt the Dodger’s in Game 3.

      Chase Utley explained his position on it and he was not out to hurt Tejada and it has been allowed…..now it’s not and Torre wants to punish the Dodgers….not right!!!

    2. I agree. They said he slid late. What was he suppose to do, stop? He kind of did a half slide, half standing as he could not avoid the Shortstop.

  2. I do believe in my lifetime that baseball will be played with a combination of that Japanese gentleman-style that so amused the MLB generatioin of the late ’40’s and ’50’s when they played Japanese teams barnstorming-style, as well as Little League Protective Policies (LLPP) that has always prevailed.

    NFL football will soon be displaying flag football rules, with gentle blocking, and adherence to standard YMCA football rules (with flag football rules overlaid on that style).

    Basketball will work very hard to totally prevent hard fouls; if you even touch an opponent, it will be 3 free throws (in case they would have gone for a three pointer sometime during the possession).

    Rules will be softened to the point that it will drive away the kind of super tough female athletes that otherwise would be soon to come on the scene. We would have seen really tough ladies breaking into baseball, basketball and football–except the powers that be in these sports (whose mental capacity has decreased to nearly nothing)–have so ripped true competition out of these sports that it is more fun to play computer simulations.

    Only hockey remains true to its sport…

  3. I hope that they hang his sorry azz. That was uncalled for, and the picture of the guy’s foot touching the bag was too unclear to make the call from New York. He may have been an inch away, or maybe he was actually touching it.
    I thought that calls were not overturned if it was too close to call. It looks like they just changed the rule.

    1. Uh, it was very clear that the shortstop never made contact with the bag. The replay showed that very easily.

      1. He was called out, he had no alternative but go back to the dug out whether he touched the bag or not wouldthen be erelevant, it was aclean play admitted by the umpires on the field,HCUA why not use your real name so we all knoe who the asshole really is,Go back to N.Y where you belong,you guys will probably win the seriesso quit bellyachen
        Sonny Leonard

  4. Children these are the fricken
    P L A Y O F F S It finally took a “non-Dodger”, from the East Coast to show the Dodgers brass how to run the bases during the playoffs. A little “hard-nosed” “old school” “we have to win this game because you go home if you don’t mentality” Pete “fricken” Rose would love this play. So did I.

    The Dodgers are too soft. During Gane 1 Turner was running from 1st to 2nd base and instead of throwing on the after burners to 3rd base he pulls up at 2nd even though the ball had not landed in front of the Right Fielder yet. It was obvious to everyone watching that it was a solid base hit. Kemp used to do that crap all the time, infact he’s still doing it in S.D.

    During game 2, 3rd base coach stopped Kiki Hernandez from going home. The entire Dodgers organization needs to watch the Astros, Cubs, Royals and see what urgency looks like in the Playoffs. Chase Utley gets it. Unfortunately Tejada got injured. I didn’t see the Mets crying when our shortstop Hanley Ramerez got beaned and broke a rib a few years ago.

    It’s B A S E B A L L during the
    P L A Y O F F S nothing more. Stop pussifying the game, it’s nonsense.

  5. BTW no one is talking about the head blow Utley took. Not once but twice. 1st his head hit Tejada’s knee and then the back of his head slammed into the ground.

    If he isn’t concussed, then I don’t know. He’s probably lucky he only got a 2 day suspension instead of a 7 day concussion observation.

  6. If he didn’t get hurt it wouldn’t be a suspension. Why didn’t he get tossed from the game if it wasn’t a legal slide?

  7. It sounds like Chase can play, and if that’s the case, Mattingly needs to show some nads and have Utley start at 2nd. Have him bat 2nd. too. He’s got great numbers against Harvey and if he’s three feet inside his head….we already won. Go Blue!

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