Posey's Injury Causes Questions Over Collisions at Homeplate
San Francisco Giants’ catcher Buster Posey is out for at least 6-8 weeks, possibly the entire season, after a home-plate collision last night with Florida Marlins’ outfielder Scott Cousins. Posey suffered a broken bone in his left ankle, as well as severely strained ligaments.
The injury occurred in the top of the 12th inning, when Cousins went to score the go ahead run in an eventual 7-6 win over Posey’s Giants. The ball reached Posey before Cousins did, so Cousins tried to barrel Posey over.
When Cousins hit him, Posey was on his knees, and the impact of the hit caused him to fall backwards with his left leg stuck under him, causing it to snap back. Posey was on the floor in pain for several minutes, and was helped off the field by trainers.
The 24 year-old rookie of the year was one of the only shining lights in a lackluster Giants offense this season. Batting .284 with 4 home runs, Posey was one of the most productive players on the Giants this season, as well as one of the best up and coming catchers in the league.
Many people are now questioning whether or not Cousins should have barreled Posey over to try and score, claiming that there was a piece of the plate the Posey was not covering that Cousins could have slid into without having to barrel him over. This is all part of the big question of whether or not to take collisions at home plate out of baseball.
Cousins had every right to barrel Posey over last night. It is not possible for a runner to determine whether or not he has room to slide into home or barrel over the catcher; in the mere seconds that a runner has to decide what to do, he does not have the time to scan the scene well enough to make that type of judgment.
As far as taking away collisions at home plate, I do not think that Major League Baseball should do it. Yes, the injury to Buster Posey was unfortunate, but Cousins did not break any rules. A batter has the right to home plate, and the catcher is standing in his way. The runner has the right to try and score by any means possible, and if that means hitting over the catcher who is standing in front of you with the ball, then so be it.
If you need to barrel the catcher over you barrel him over, and I do not think that that should change. Unfortunate injuries like this happen in every sport, but are we going to take tackling away from football or checking away from hockey because people get hurt every once in a while? I do not think so, so why take away barreling over the catcher at home plate.
Barreling the catcher over has been a successful technique that has been used in baseball for many years by all teams to try and score runs by any means they can. Does that allow for a greater chance at injury? Yes, but both the runner and the catcher are at risk in a collision at home plate. The same goes for the pitcher and the batter when a pitch is thrown.
A batter can get hit in the head by a 90 MPH fastball that gets away at any point during a game; does that mean pitchers should not pitch fast? And a pitcher can get a comebacker sent back at him faster than he can possibly react; does that mean we should not play baseball?
The players understand the risk they take when they step out onto the field, and they know that they have the possibility of getting injured. Is it unfortunate? Yes, but it is a part of the game.
