Quote:
Originally Posted by GirlySports
Yup, it's an unfortunate injury but the baseline belongs to the runner.
Trout you'll remember this one. 2003 Divisional Playoffs SF vs FLA. Top of the 9th the tying run JT Snow tries to score from 2nd on a single and goes crashing into Pudge Rodriguez. Pudge held the ball up for all to see and the Giants were eliminated. One of the most exciting endings to a series.
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Snow should never have been sent home on that play. He was a slow runner and the ball beat him by 8 feet. The difference on that play and the Posey one is Pudge was 6 feet up the line and blocking the plate/baseline, so Snow had to go through him. Snow couldn't have ran around him because he would have left the basepath. Posey on the other hand came from the other side of the plate and Cousins went out of his way to hit him instead of going for the plate, which was open. The Giants just never got going that series. It was very frustrating, as they were a really good team during the regular season.
The baseline was open, and there is a picture above I have included. Since the base line hits the top corner of home, the entire plate was open and available for a slide. If a runner going to first does anything like this, (Alex Rodriguez vs. Boston), he's called out immediately. If the runner going into second tries to take out the fielder and doesn't touch the base on the slide, the batter is called out, or at least should be according to the rules. I've seen many wide slides not called.