I hate home-plate collisions.
Jon Jay Eschews Slide, Prefers Manly Out
Hate is a strong word, I know. But I do hate them, because I don’t like seeing baseball players get hurt and it’s usually not even a particularly smart play.
Case in point: Jon Jay vs. Carlos Ruiz in the fourth inning of Game 2.
Jay was on second base with two outs. Rafael Furcal lined a single into left field, a one-hopper to Raul Ibanez.
Now, everyone knows that Ibanez doesn’t throw particularly well -- okay, he doesn’t throw well at all -- and you have to run on him, especially with two outs. But Ibanez returned Furcal’s one-hopper with a one-hopper of his own, a nearly perfect throw to Ruiz at the plate.
But again, it did hop. Ibanez’s throw hit the ground and bounced up. Ruiz had to get it, and he had to move a little bit to the third-base side of the plate as well. Which left the front of the plate unprotected. All Jay had to do was perform a pretty little hook slide, just like Ty Cobb used to teach the kiddies, and he might well have scored the tying run
Instead, Jay did the manly and stupid thing, trying to plow through Ruiz and (presumably) knock the ball out of his glove.
He didn’t. Catchers are tough, and these days they have real big mitts. But at least he was manly. Winning ain’t the only thing.
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