MLB ban home play collisions with 1 exception

[Sportsguy9695]

Rather than ban home plate collisions outright, Major League Baseball and its players adopted a rule limiting them this season.

In what both sides said was a one-year experiment, the rule allows collisions if the catcher has the ball and is blocking the runner's direct path to home plate, and if the catcher goes into the basepath to field a throw to the plate.

The new rule, 7.13, states "a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate)." A runner violating the rule shall be declared out, even if the fielder drops the ball.

Along with the rule, the sides agreed to a pair of comments that umpires use to interpret the rule. The first comment says, "the failure by the runner to make an effort to touch the plate, the runner's lowering of the shoulder, or the runner's pushing through with his hands, elbows or arms, would support a determination that the runner deviated from the pathway in order to initiate contact with the catcher in violation." The comment says players who slide appropriately are not in violation of the rule.

The second comment says that "unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score." The runner shall be declared safe if the catcher violates that provision. In addition, it is not a violation "if the catcher blocks the pathway of the runner in order to field a throw, and the umpire determines that the catcher could not have fielded the ball without blocking the pathway of the runner and that contact with the runner was unavoidable."

Source: ESPN

 

[HammerDown]

Buster Poser is a big baby.

Nothing else to add.

 

[LALakersboy24.7]

Great now more questionable call's will be made, all hell will break loose. The game just became more pussiefied thanks to Buster Pussy.

 

[HammerDown]

"This rule is an outrage." - The Bochester

 

[broncosmitty]

The finalized version seems like common sense to me. Hopefully catchers get lit up like crazy, legally, whenever the opportunity arises.

 

[packerzrule]

let the pussification of baseball begin

what's next.........banning the spitting of chew and sunflower seeds??

 

[night]

let the pussification of baseball begin

what's next.........banning the spitting of chew and sunflower seeds??

I think that started happening when we brought the walls in to barely more than Little League distance. Yankee stadium's left and right walls are under 320...my Little League field was 290 on the corners and my high school field were 335 on the corners.

Then you have the umpires who switched from the giant pad to the armor under their shirt. So now they're scared of the ball and hide behind the inside shoulder of the catcher. Which means they'll call the inside pitches with extreme accuracy but for the ones on the outside part of the plate you'll see a 4-6" margin of leeway. So we as fans get this awesome piece of technology on screen that pinpoints exactly where the pitch was, but since the umps are scared of the ball we get worse calls.

Also, pitchers should be able to dust someone up if they're crowding the plate.

 

[JDM]

I almost got thrown out of a little league game for running over the catcher once. Then I almost got thrown out again for telling the ump he was full of shit.

 

[HammerDown]

let the pussification of baseball begin

what's next.........banning the spitting of chew and sunflower seeds??

"I don't think skirts for catchers is embarrassing at all." - Bruce Bochy and Buster Poser

 

[RoboticDreams]

let the pussification of baseball begin

what's next.........banning the spitting of chew and sunflower seeds??

Undoubtedly that will follow. Maybe throwing up-and-in on a batter will result an automatic walk. Sports are becoming unwatchable.

 

[HammerDown]

 

[Lemon Harang Pie]

a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate).

the failure by the runner to make an effort to touch the plate, the runner's lowering of the shoulder, or the runner's pushing through with his hands, elbows or arms, would support a determination that the runner deviated from the pathway in order to initiate contact with the catcher in violation.

unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score.

I don't see anything unreasonable about the rule change.