But it sure looks like he learned a few things from him!

It doesn’t matter if the hit was clean or not; a pitcher still has an obligation to send a message to the other team that he is going to protect his teammates. (And let’s be honest; Jake did a god job of hitting Harrison with a relatively gentle pitch and he made sure it stayed low. There was no head hunting.)

Baseball rocks.

Molina positioned himself so Harrison had the outside of the plate but…. The throw caused Molina to move to his left to field it, putting him dead center of the baseline. Harrison noted he was going to slide until he saw Molina moving to field the throw. At that point, a slide would have come up feet short of the plate, and there was no outside path. Harrison rammed him. This is standard and not considered dirty. Catchers do it themselves. Yadi had no complaints against Harrison, Harrison had no complaints about Yadi. MLB could avoid this type of play by forcing players to slide but it likely won’t happen, especially not with Selig.

The HBP is standard. If the pitcher hits him in the lower back or ass the player doesn’t seem to take offense. MLB usually follows with a joke of a suspension. Again, MLB could up the ante and end this type of thing, but they obviously don’t want to.

There is no way to eliminate the possibility of injury to a player. The question is what risk is acceptable. Apparently MLB, and the majority of owners, and fans find the risk involved in this type of play to be acceptable.

Warranted???

Again, blogger gone wild.

The hilarity conitnues.

The Cards didn’t bitch after the game on about the collision and the Pirates didn’t bitch about HBP.

Ya see author, sometimes the game polices itself – let it go.

Molina is a class act, he’s come a long way in the past 18 months.

So being a Cards fan, I take offense to that. Is the name calling I’ve done juvenile and immature? Absolutely, I won’t deny that.

But I figure if Matthew can take whatever joke of a journalism degree he has to spew venom about my favorite team then I can take him to task. No?

And no I don’t, nor never have, lived in a trailer park or my mothers basement.

Sorry for not making it clearer that I support your reasoning. I was going of on that topic as well, not arguing against you.

Did you even read what I wrote? I’m not going to thumbs down all your posts even though I agree with you.

Plays at the plate are inherently exciting because of the immediate implications. An entire run is either scored or saved. I don’t need (the rare) violent hit to find enjoyment in close plays at the plate.

And Molina continues to be a class act for the most part.

Sorry those in the dainty crowd get squeamish at these plays maybe golf and tennis is more your speed

And no, as I stated earlier in calling it an anamoly, I don’t understand how this play fits into the game. Plus, the way the rules are enforced is more important than how they are written.

Why is this totally misplaced? And it isn’t for the sake of change. As I addressed earlier it is because the play has no resemblance to every other play in baseball and it is degrees more dangerous than all other plays. I made my case twice now. You refused to actually address it the first time.

Coming down on hard plays at the plate? Totally misplaced change for the sake of change. Hyper-dangerous is a grand hyper-bole on your part. And again, it illustrates that you do not understand why or the play fits into the game as the rules are written.

And that makes sense because the people who have been arguing against it, don’t even understand the rules and how it applies to the Runner and whoever is fielding Home Plate.

What is the reason for continuing to allow hard plays at the plate? Tradition for tradition’s sake? Inertia? I refuse to believe that the game of baseball in its current state is not perfect.