There’s a running narrative in sports all around the world. When an injury or hard play happens, everyone wants you to toughen up, be a man and suck it up. No matter if it’s football, basketball or even baseball. When a hard play happens, the first thought that comes across the minds of some people is to get up, dust yourself off and keep it moving.
But what happens when you can’t get up and dust it off? What happens when you have no clue what is about to happen to you because you’re just trying to do the right thing? What happens when someone says they were intentionally trying to break up what you were trying to make?
Last night, during NLDS game 2 between the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, reserve second baseman for the Dodgers, Chase Utley, was breaking towards second base after a ball was hit into the outfield. Mets second baseman Daniel Murphy got the ball, flipped it to shortstop Ruben Tejada and as Tejada went to turn a double play, Utley collided with him in a questionable manner. The ‘grizzled, tough’ veteran Chase Utley says he was just trying to break up the double play. The score, at the time, was 2-1 in favor of the Mets in the bottom of the seventh inning with one out and the Dodgers needed to do whatever they could to stay alive and avoid possibly losing two games at home. So, Chase Utley took matters into his own hands and took out Ruben Tejada.
An MLB official talked to Mike Vorkunov of NJ.com about the dynamics of the play and why Utley was safe on this play.
Prior to accepting the challenge, the umpires on the field determined the play to be reviewable as a force play and not the neighborhood play. After viewing all relevant angles, the Replay Official definitively determined that the fielder’s foot was not in contact with second base at any time when he had possession of the ball. The call is OVERTURNED, the runner is safe.
MLB’s chief baseball officer Joe Torre and Director of Umpiring Randy Marsh both stated last night that if the Mets, at any time before Utley walked off the field, tagged him, he would’ve been out and not granted second base. So the umpires and Joe Torre are saying a man with a broken leg and a team in utter shock as to what just happened to their shortstop, was expected to get up and chase after Utley as he trotted to the dugout. Torre says the he and the MLB will be reviewing the play to see if any discipline is warranted and based off prior Utley transgressions, there actually might be a case to remove him for a couple of games.
ESPN analyst Alex Cora, who is a former World Series Champion middle infielder who played with both the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, spoke on the incident and why it wasn’t exactly the cleanest of plays.
Tejada’s teammate on the Mets, outfielder Michael Cuddyer, had one way to classify the Utley play. He called it a tackle.
As seen in the above video, Utley had no intention of touching the base. He has the ability to use his left hand to swipe the base but instead, he’s too focused on breaking up the double play against a man with his back turned. As a result, Tejada suffered a broken leg and his season is over. The Mets will now have to turn to Wilmer Flores, a man who was almost traded earlier this season. Unfortunately for the Mets, Flores has been sick recently and he lost 10 pounds in four days as a result of strep throat. So now they will have to be forced to use a player with a less than stellar bill of health as their starting shortstop in the playoffs. Tejada’s season is over so the Mets will be making a move to bring up a rookie who might make his MLB debut in the playoffs.
Following from Joe Trezza of MLB.com.
#Mets source confirms Matt Reynolds replacing Ruben Tejada on NLDS roster. Reynolds would be 2nd player in modern era to debut in postseason
— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) October 11, 2015
What Utley did was intentional and it wasn’t the first time he has done this to Ruben Tejada. It also wasn’t the first time that Utley took out an infielder to try and break up a play.
The Utley/Tejada play from 2010. https://t.co/1OFTGVrJ9y
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) October 11, 2015
Big difference between 2015 and this play from 2010 with Tejada, is that Utley slid into the base and he asked Ruben if he was ok afterwards. Utley did none of the sort after the play happened which is strange and also could warrant a reason for concern as to why Utley wasn’t tested for any concussion like symptoms after taking such a hard hit to his head. Chase wasn’t in a clear state of mind and should have been taken off the field to be examined further.
Only one year later after his first play against Tejada, Utley struck again. What happened to also be an NLDS home game 2 in the playoffs for Utley’s team, interestingly enough, Chase had another questionable slide into an infielder trying to turn a double play.
If you’re still not convinced of Utley’s intentions with this ‘hard baseball play’ in attempt to stop the opposing team from turning a double play, just check out what Utley did earlier this season against the San Diego Padres.
Utley knows what he was doing. While I don’t think he has the intention to injure a player at any time, he still knows what he’s doing with these type of plays and as a middle infielder himself, he knows the risks of plays like this.
After the game, Utley said the following about the play.
And Mets team captain, third baseman David Wright, said he was simply confused about the play on a number of different levels.
Utley says he feels terrible and he reached out to Tejada about the play that broke the shortstops leg.
#Dodgers’ Utley sent an apology to Tejada last night through a player on the #Mets that he knows well. Intent was not to injure.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 11, 2015
Just exchanged texts with #Dodgers’ Utley. Here is what he said: “In no way shape or form was I trying to hurt Ruben…
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 11, 2015
“… I slid in hard like I have for 12 years. I feel terrible about the outcome. I've reached out to Ruben via David Wright.”
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 11, 2015
Chase says his intent was not to injure Tejada and that’s fine but the bottomline is, he did. He knew what he was doing and he now has to pay the price for what happened. Utley is a habitual ‘tough slide’ guy and unfortunately for Utley and Tejada, something went wrong which is costing a player his first opportunity in the MLB postseason.
Whether or not the MLB will do something is not yet known but there will be some sort of retribution from the Mets. Their manager, Terry Collins, says that the players are mad about what happened.
For game three of the NLDS, the two teams will head to New York as the series goes to Citi Field for two more games. Taking the mound for the Mets will be their ace Matt Harvey who has a prior issue with Chase Utley from earlier this season. When Utley was a member of the Phillies, his teammate David Buchanan hit two Mets and Harvey retaliated against Utley.
A retaliation effort from Harvey wouldn’t exactly be the smartest thing to do in this scenario. The MLB and umpires will be on watch to see if there is anything funky going on when the Dark Knight takes the mound against the Dodgers. Utley, at this point of his career, is a bench player only brought on for pinch hits so there could be a scenario in which Utley comes on in the sixth, seventh, eighth inning and face a Mets reliever like Hansel Robles, who has no problem going up and high on Phillies players. The video below happened after Mets star Yoenis Cespedes was hit on the hands by a pitch from a Phillies pitcher.
It’s the playoffs, so everyone will be on high-alert and the Mets are already down a player. So if they do use a guy like Robles or even Harvey to throw at Utley or Adrian Gonzalez or Joc Pederson, it might not end well and could possibly warrant a suspension.
For right now, the Mets are stuck and seemingly they can’t do anything without running the risk of losing another player for a reason out of their control. For Chase Utley, this is far from over. The MLB could suspend him but the New York Mets won’t forget next year, especially when they face the Dodgers in Los Angeles next season on May 9th.
Chase will still be under contract next season with the Dodgers so he might avoid contact right now but coming soon, Utley could catch a pitch near his head. That’s the risk you run when you want to play reckless and do something that you know might injure another human being. Forget it being a ‘man’s game’ or being a ‘tough player’. One man just broke another man’s leg by doing something he’s habitually done in the past. So now, Chase’s prior transgressions might finally catch up to him.
