LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – As recently as 2011, Mike Scioscia did not support banning collisions at home plate.
Now, the Angels manager and longtime big-league catcher has changed his mind – and so have a lot of his peers.
In what could amount to the sport’s biggest rule change since the designated hitter began in 1973, MLB rules committee chair Sandy Alderson announced after a vote Wednesday the league intends to ban all home-plate collisions, likely by the start of the upcoming season.
Baseball is also markedly increasing its use of instant replay in 2014, including manager challenges. But that has been planned for some time; the collision ban is more recent and in its earlier stages.
“It’s a little bit of a dicey issue to work your way through,” Scioscia said Wednesday at the league’s annual winter meetings. “But I’m comfortable in the feeling that it will be addressed and addressed to a satisfactory level, where a runner can still be aggressive going to the plate with a hard slide and the catcher understands the need to have the ball in his possession and what he can do to tag a guy at the plate.”
The rule is not yet certain to be in place by April. A final drafting of the rule by the rules committee is still needed, plus subsequent approval by MLB owners at next month’s meetings in Arizona and final Players’ Association approval.
If the players don’t vote it through, the rule would be suspended for one year but implemented regardless for the 2015 season, according to Alderson, also the Mets’ general manager.
Still, universal agreement on the issue does not exist. Pete Rose, involved in perhaps the sport’s most famous collision in the 1970 All-Star Game, criticized the committee for changing an integral part of the game.
“What are they going to do next, you can’t break up a double play?” Rose told the Associated Press. “You’re not allowed to pitch inside. The hitters wear more armor than the Humvees in Afghanistan. Now you’re not allowed to be safe at home plate? What’s the game coming to? Evidently the guys making all these rules never played the game of baseball.”
Even some currently in the game don’t fully back the rule as designed. New Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said he’d prefer something that outlawed only contact “above the shoulders.”
“With all the new information on concussions, it’s probably the prudent thing to do,” said Ausmus, a big-league catcher for 18 years. “However, I am a little bit old school in the sense that I don’t want to turn home plate into just another tag play. This is a run. It should matter a little bit more.”
Scioscia expressed concern about the rule’s ability to be fairly enforced.
“I think that it’s easy to say a runner has to slide,” he said. “But on the other side of the coin, it’s going to be difficult to contain a runner telling him what he has to do and let the catcher have carte blanche to be able to block the plate aggressively. And there will have to be some parameters around the catcher.”
Potential parameters are still unclear. Asked if he thought umpires should be able to use discretion in doling out consequences to rule violators, Scioscia said that was “point Z” in the alphabet list of things still needing clarification.
“Really, we’re still at point A,” Scioscia said. “There’s a lot that has to be dissected.”
In 2011, after Giants catcher Buster Posey was lost for the year on a fluke injury in a collision, Scioscia indicated he did not support any rule changes.
“I don’t know if there’s enough to rewrite the rulebook,” Scioscia said the day after Posey broke his ankle. “If a player’s trying to score and a catcher is trying to block the plate, it’s part of baseball and will continue to be part of baseball.”
But public opinion has gradually tilted in the other direction since. Ausmus referred to the Posey injury as a “tipping point.”
Scioscia said Wednesday he was hopeful baseball would be able to retain the excitement and authenticity of home-plate plays while reflecting a newfound focus on player safety.
“I know when you do make a great play at the plate, it’s a great momentum swing in the game and can be uplifting,” Scioscia said. “You can make those plays without putting your body on the line. I think that’s what the game is trying to get to.”
