Junius Worth
David Kerr
Charlie Nehl
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Andrew Martin
Jonathan C. Mitchell
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Daniel Marino
Michael Schwartze
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Spencer Schneier
William J. Tasker
Last night’s NLCS game was full of action including a leadoff homerun, both pitchers hitting doubles, and the slide that no one would shut up about.
In case you missed it or did not hear about it, in the top of the first inning Matt Holliday slid well over the second base bag in an attempt to try and break up a potential double-play. During his slide he took Giants infielder Marco Scutaro out at the knees and then Twitter and Giants fans everywhere blew up.
Yes, the slide was aggressive and eventually caused Scutaro to leave the game but X-Rays came back negative and Scutaro will be re-evaluated today and likely will not miss any action. Major League infielder Will Rhymes tweeted “I have a serious problem with that slide” and Giants manager Bruce Bochy thinks the Cardinals got away with an illegal slide. I understand why some people have a problem with the slide but it has been completely blown out of proportion by fans and the media.
Holliday admitted himself that he wishes he slid a step earlier. I believe him. Holliday is not the kind of guy who is out to hurt another player. Giants’ outfielder Hunter Pence believes that and so should we. Holliday plays the game hard and when you only have a split second to make a decision, a decision that could lead to saving your team from an out and extend the inning, there is a chance that things will not go as planned.
Am I fan of the slide? No. But I am a fan of players who play hard and try to prevent outs for his team. Holliday will likely get a fastball in-between the letters at some point and he will likely put his head down and take his base, knowing exactly why he was hit. Hey, at least the slide was not as bad as Joe Morgan‘s in the 1972 World Series:
Now that is a Bush-League slide to get fired up about!
-Jonathan C. Mitchell can be found writing about the Tampa Bay Rays at DRaysBay and the Florida Marlins at ESPN’s SweetSpot site Marlins Daily. You can follow him on twitter at @FigureFilbert. Be sure to follow MLBdirt at @MLBdirt
Filed under: Digging Deep - Analysis Tagged: | Bruce Bochy, Cincinnati Reds, Hunter Pence, Joe Morgan, Marco Scutaro, Matt Holliday, MLB Playoffs, NLCS, Oakland A's, Oakland Athletics, Playoffs, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Will Rhymes, World Series
I’d buy Holliday’s “slid too late” comment if he didn’t have a history of doing this. Just ask Starlin Castro. http://www.bleachernation.com/2011/07/30/watch-matt-hollidays-bush-league-slide-into-starlin-castro/
I will admit that that slide into Castro was Bush League. I still buy into him sliding late last night. He plays the game hard and it’s going to happen. He’s even hit his own face sliding into home before. Haha!
Wow, so much wrong in one post. First, the slide/slides that you are comparing it to, A) you have the wrong player, that is not joe morgan in either slide B) and this makes a HUGE difference the second baseman is in front of the bag C) in the first slide the player hit the dirt long before the bag, in the second slide, as I said he was in front of the bag which is akin to blocking home plate. Holliday leaped into the air and came down on the far side of the bag where Sutaro was. The back of the bag is supposed to be a semi-safe area mainly because players are expected to hit the ground before the bag even on the hardest of slides. Basically any player who isn’t attempting to be politically correct or isn’t a St. Louis Cardinal has called this bush league. My guess is whoever wrote this article didn’t play past little league. I was just starting to get into twitter and was going to follow MLB Dirt until I realized that you have no credibility.
Thanks for the comment and we appreciate the feedback.
The second player in the video posted is, in fact, Joe Morgan. Morgan led with his body and went airborne as he reached the base. Far worse than what Holliday did. Also, there is nothing akin to blocking home plate. No one on the field has the protection a catcher does and every knows that if a players goes into a base as if it were home plate that player would likely will not make it back to the dugout without a teammate going Jonny Gomes on him.
I have been on the wrong side of hard slides and, while I am not a fan of what Holliday did, I do not find it to be flagrant or as bad as Giants fans make it out to be.
You may disagree with everything I ever write or say but please don’t let what one person says impact what you think of the rest of the writers. Again, thanks for the comment and we always love a little banter so I hope you keep coming back. =)
The second player in the video is Hal McRae. I had to slow it down at around the 7 second mark to make sure, but Morgan wore number 8. Also this is something that led to the “Hal McRae Rule” where you are not allowed to undercut the player at the bases. Again though, not at all a fair compairison due to the fact that one was in front of the bag the other behind the bag. It is a world of difference. As a 2B you don’t want to get merked so you either go with the swipe/vicinity play or stay behind the bag and step back after you’ve received and thrown. I played 2B for a couple decades and made some mental errors that led to spike scars and generally I just accepted it as my fault for putting myself a few feet closer to a runner looking to take me out. Also, it’s one thing to say that in your humble opinion the play wasn’t bush league, and saying that “Holliday’s Slide was Far from Bush League”. To say unequivocally that there nothing wrong with Holliday’s slide is actually pretty arrogant. As if decisions of what is and isn’t acceptable on a baseball field is decided right here, by you. I appreciate you giving props to the other writers here at dirt, but reading them gives page views to the site and still helps someone that I vehemently disagree with. Maybe I’ll pull an end around and look at their work some other way to check the veracity of that statement.
I think you are right about it being Hal McRae (I was simply going by what the owner of the video said). But I never said “unequivocally” that there was nothing wrong with the slide. Actually, I said I was not a fan of it and that it was being blown out of proportion. I only added the McRae slide to show what I consider to be a Bush-League play. This is only my opinion and I was not, nor am I ever, in the place to tell people what to think about situations like these.
I, too, have scars on my shins from someone else’s cleats. This article was simply my take on the play which, obviously, differs from your take on the play.
I understand you not agreeing with me but you seem to believe you are on some opposite end of a spectrum from me which is not the case. Again, please don’t take your frustrations out on the other writers. I disagree with writers often, even ones I look up to and ones that write on this very site, but it won’t stop me from visiting their site or reading their articles and I hope you change your mind. I’ll subtract your page views if it will help you change your mind. =)
Nah, don’t subtract my views. I’ll just google the other writers and check out their writing somewhere else. If it is of high quality, I’ll come back and also give you a twitter follower. I used the unequivocally statement simply because of your title. You definitely didn’t ever use the word, but saying it is “far from bush league” is the issue. It’s implying that there isn’t even a debate. The word “far” basically says something along the lines of this is bush league: |———————————————————————————————————————————————-| this is the Scutaro play. I’ll find a way to lurk around maybe look on google to see the writers here, and see if their work, and yours is on other sites, and if I find it agreeable I’ll come back. It sounds like we were both middle infielders for quite a while. I was also a pitcher. I started having health issues my senior year of high school so I never really did anything other than after missing my last year I played some pay to play league, and softball. You wanna hear bush league? In a JV vs Varsity scrimmage, I was going to travel with the Varsity team for a tournament, then return to JV when I got back, but the guy who was at 4 didn’t appreciate a freshman going along apparently to back him up, so during a scrimmage he was at first, balls hit right at the SS, he flips it to me, and we had been told that this wasn’t a full speed game not to mention we’re teammates. Anyways, this insecure MFer comes in cleats up and shreds my socks and my shin and calf, not pants, since I wore high socks. That’s bush league! Honestly dude, I don’t find you to be a bad guy at all, I just think we are at an impasse when it comes to this issue.
Now that is bush league! I actually played a lot of center field and tore my rotator cuff so I moved to the infield and started playing shortstop but moved to second base (much easier throw for my weak arm) and really liked it. I have a nice scar on my shin from one bad slide but I was never on the end of something that was as bad as you just described.