Streaming video and college baseball seem to be a perfect match. Baseball is such a niche sport that TV stations/cable networks don't want to make an investment in proving regular coverage.
The growth of the Internet has made getting games easier than ever. On many days in South Carolina more college baseball games are streamed than aren't.
I was camped in front of my Smart TV Sunday when Parker Chavers hit his walk-off grand slam to lift Coastal Carolina over Duke. An hour or so later, I watched Presbyterian lose to Auburn in 10 innings. The game ended when Jake Wyandt was called for blocking the plate before he had the ball, so the Tigers runner was called safe.
The play at the plate is at about the 2:30 mark of this highlight video from the Auburn Website. Watch it before you continue reading
I know that's the rule now, but I think it's a lousy rule.
Last summer was the 50-year anniversary of Pete Rose plowing over Ray Fosse to score the winning in the MLB All-Star Game. A few years Buster Posey suffered serious injuries in a collision with Scott Cousins. It was after that play that some of the catcher safety rules began being revised.
Other than those two, I can't think of a home plate collision that lives in baseball lore. (Granted, my memory isn't what it once was.) If anybody wanted to take on somebody wearing pads and leg guards, more power to them. That's Baseball.
A 10-year medical study found that fewer than 15 percent of catcher injuries occurred because of home plate contact with an opposing player.
I know catching is a tough job. I had one experience with it. I was 9 or 10 years old when my church league coach decided to put me in the tools of ignorance. I hadn't even caught on the sidelines or in practice. I suspect I put myself so far out of the bat's swing path that I was in the umpire's box behind the plate. I don't remember anything else about the experience other than when I got home both upper legs were black and blue from where the pitched balls had gotten past my mitt. My mother took one look at the carnage and that became the original #NeverAgain moment.
I want players to be as safe as possible. I just think there ought to be some leeway when there isn't a collision.
Of course, organized baseball has made several other changes I don't like:
* The designated hitter
* no-pitch intentional walks.
* starting runners on second base in extra innings as a tiebreaker.
We've all chuckled at old-timers talking about how much better things were in the good old days.
I've reached that point where I pine for the good old days, but with Internet access.
And, finally:
HEY! YOU KIDS! GET OFFA MY LAWN!!!
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| That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it. |
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