Baseball Loses Contact
Football is a breed of strategy and violence. Hockey has on-ice fights and checking. Basketball has hard fouls and contact underneath the rim. Why have the baseball Gods decided that on-field physical contact is bad for baseball?
In 2011, superstar Buster Posey broke his leg when he got run over by Scott Cousins in a collision at the plate. Then in 2015, Chris Coghlan took out Jung Ho Kang at second base, ending his season with a knee injury. Later that season in the NL Division Series, Chase Utley lit up the Mets Ruben Tejada at second, breaking his leg. The Mets would beat the Dodgers in 5, but ultimately fall to the Royals in the World Series.
Those three injuries sparked Major League Baseball to put in restrictions to reduce the amount of contact a runner can initiate at second base and home plate. They succeeded in reducing injury. There hasn’t been a major one since. However, they also failed by taking away some of the interesting nuance of the sport.
Athletes are playing a physical game. Injuries are part of that equation. Just because a pitcher hurts his arm throwing the baseball 98 mph, we don’t ask them to throw it softer. We don’t hit off a tee because the pitcher occasionally hits the batter in the ribs. We don’t stop running to first because a player pulls a hamstring. Sports have risk.
Hard slides and collisions aren’t the main reasons we come to see a baseball game, but they make it that much more exciting to watch and to talk about. They require the players to adjust positioning and have a unique skill to sense and avoid contact. They make the game more athletic. They make the game unique and nuanced.
Do we like to see injuries? Absolutely not. But the beauty of a mid-air throw, a game of cat and mouse by the runner and the fielder, is a spectacular feat. They are plays that every kid imitates in their backyard. They are plays that kids dream about.
