What happens if a guy is in front of the rim, inside the halo, on a layup? He gets blasted because he's protecting the goal. On top of it, he also gets the foul.

 

 

Not in high school.

Not in high school.

 

Right.

I played catcher in high school some and I don't like eliminating them, but I'll probably feel differently if I ever have kids of my own. For me, it was always a pride thing when people said baseball wasn't a "tough" or "contact" sport. Maybe that's pretty caveman-ish of me, but it's how I feel.

 

The thing I worry about with all the bans that on collisions is that some doctors are more convinced that it's just as, if not more, injurious to your brain when you take a number of small, repeated shots to the head than one or two bigs ones.

 

Obviously, there are serious concussions like the Jahvid Best one at Cal where you just see a huge effect on the guy's career, but on the whole, it may be worse to your cranial structures if you take 10 foul balls off the mask in a year than if you take one bad collision at the plate. I've been more shook taking a foul ball off the mask than I have by a collision.

 

The thing about collisions at home plate that is different is that the runner just has to touch the base and not stay on it (like they'd have to at 2nd or 3rd)... it's kind of like you being able to overrrun 1st base.

 

When you are back there and a guy is trying to score from second and your outfielder heaves the ball in, you have to get down and in position to receive the throw (or the relay throw) while he's coming at you. It's a bang-bang play sometimes. I'd liken it to that slot receiver going over the middle, hitting the soft spot of a zone and looking the ball in while knowing he's gonna get decked from someone right after.

 

If there's no play, you bail. If he's out by a mile, then you get low and use your gear to protect yourself. There are very few times in the year when it comes to the ball and runner getting there simultaneously. If a guy just railroads your catcher for no reason, then your pitcher throws behind him the next time. It's just one of those baseball things.

 

In a year or so of playing catcher, I only had one or two collisions at the plate. Took way more foul tips off the mask, and no one really thinks twice about those.

Edited December 15, 201312 yr by JokersWild24

Science has taken over.

We both agree that the upside is less serious and potentially long-term injuries for catchers, correct?

 

What's the downside?

 

Serious question. How often does this play come up? It seems to me MLB is creating a storm that wasn't there. This play is very rare and I don't see why it needed it's own rule.

Serious question. How often does this play come up? It seems to me MLB is creating a storm that wasn't there. This play is very rare and I don't see why it needed it's own rule.

 

Didn't you see Buster Posey break his leg? That clip got tons of mileage, and how long ago was that?