07/10/1999
The recent career threatening injury to Jason Kendall, and season threatening
injury to Javier Lopez should never have happened. Both injuries occurred
while the players were running the bases (Lopez sliding in an attempted steal
of second). But more to the point is why did these injuries occur? Why are
the bases not low to the ground like home plate? If they were these two injuries
may never have happened. The official rule book states:
1.06 First, second and third bases shall be marked by white canvas bags,
securely attached to the ground as indicated in Diagram 2. The first and
third base bags shall be entirely within the infield. The second base bag
shall be centered on second base. The bags shall be 15 inches square, not
less than three nor more than five inches thick, and filled with soft material.
While this might have been fine, back earlier in the century, the rule has
been taken too literally. Anyone who has ever touched a base can tell you
that it is hardly soft. Yes, it might be filled with soft material but it
is stuffed too densely.
If you view game tapes from earlier in the century when a player slides into
or runs through a base the base moves at least a little, cushioning the impact,
but today no such thing happens, the bases are secured to the ground with
a steal "post" that is sunken at least 6 inches into the ground.
The solution is so simple no one in baseball can see it. The bases don't
have to be like home plate, but lets go back toward the way things used to
be. Lets under-stuff the bases. The bases should absorb impact, and not be
like running into a cement slab. Hook the bases to the ground in such a way
that they will move slightly, even half an inch would more than likely have
been enough movement to keep Lopez from possibly missing the rest of the
season.
Mopping Up
Juan Gonzalez is a self centered cry baby and there is no way to get around
that. I don't care what his excuse is for refusing to play in the All
Star Game unless he was elected to start by the fans. The unofficial
excuse floating around is that he is having family troubles with his new
wife. But that is hardly an excuse for throwing a tantrum to the media
about something so totally unrelated to the real problem. Major League
Baseball is still trying to recover from the backlash of the Strike in 1994,
and tantrums like this don't help achieve that goal. Gonzalez deserves
every boo and hiss that comes his way this year.
The Atlanta Braves' run of having a starter in every All Star Game since
1991 has come to an end. Chipper Jones led the Braves in votes with
653,197, but that's less than half of the votes starting third baseman Matt
Williams received. Perhaps adding insult to injury was San Diego and
NL All Star Manager Bruce Bochy naming Pirates third baseman Ed Sprague as
the reserve over Chipper Jones.
The mid-season rumours and trades have already started and are gathering
steam. The Rockies appear to be looking to make wholesale changes,
but still don't have a clue about the real problems with their club. The
problem is not so much the pitching which is average but the offense, which
is mediocre at best. No one knows for sure what Peter Angelos has in
mind for the Orioles this year, but here's hoping he allows Wren to sell
off the veterans and rebuild the club, same goes for the Fox folks out in
LA.
And finally the Diamondbacks got taken yet again this year looking for a
solution to their bullpen problems. First it was the Dan Plesac trade
and as as if that wasn't bad enough, now they have given up minor league
pitcher and future ace Brad Penny, future closer Vladimir Nunez, and a player
to be named later for Marlin's closer Matt Mantei. While I am
not saying Mantei isn't worth a lot, he certainly isn't worth as much as
Randy Johnson who was obtained by Houston last year for similar or lesser
talent.
-- O-fer
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© 1999 K. Hollingshead
1999 |
