New Rules-- Instant Replay and Collisions at Home Plate

Baseball is nothing if not a game of complicated rules and every new season brings some tweaks to those rules.  There are some big ones this season, so watch for them.  And of course, baseball is nothing if not a game where people have strong opinions about those new rules. 

The biggest change is the use of instant replay.  Baseball held out for a long time against instant replay as a way to challenge calls.  Fans were proud the game relied on the umpire skill and the “human factor,” which basically means sometimes the call goes in your favor and sometimes it goes against.  But too many plays (and games and championships) were lost because the field umpire didn’t have the same visual angle as the four television cameras focused on the same base—needless to mention the thousands of fans watching that same play over and over again on their screens at home.  

So baseball is still not embracing technology but is giving it a peck on the cheek. It will expand its use of instant replay as a tool for managers to challenge calls. Here are the highlights

• Managers can challenge a play and ask for a review.  If that challenged play (or any part of that play) is overturned, then the manager gets another opportunity to challenge another play during the game. No manager may challenge more than two plays in a game.

• There's a list of plays eligible for challenge. Strikes and balls are not eligible. Home run and boundary calls remain reviewable under procedures already in place  (In August 2008, MLB started using video to decide boundary calls such as home runs at the top of fences or near foul poles.)

Easy enough, except it isn’t.  It turns out to be a complicated process.  Challenges must be made in a timely manner. Managers can call from the dugout to a video specialist in their clubhouse for consultation and if they choose to challenge, must specifically say what part (or parts) of the call they are challenging. Plays are then reviewed by Replay Officials who are Major League Umpires at a “Replay Command Center” in New York. That’s where all the replay decisions are decided in a very high tech operation.  (Go to MLB Replay Command Center  for a peek inside.)    In addition, all home runs and plate collisions are subject to reviews at the discretion of the Crew Chief.

Which brings us to the second big change this season—the home plate collision rules.  There have been some epic collisions at home plate in baseball history.  Aggressiveness in base running is essential, and collisions between the runner and the catcher at home plate have sometimes been gruesomely violent.  One of these collisions happened April 25, 2011, when Scott Cousins of the Marlins barreled into Giants catcher Buster Posey with the go-ahead run in the 12th inning. Posey sustained injuries that kept him out of the rest of the baseball season that year. It wasn’t the only body slamming collision in baseball, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back (and Posey’s left ankle.)  See it here at Buster Posey Video. 

The new rules say a catcher can't block the plate (in front of the plate facing third base) unless he has the ball.  This means he can’t stand in front of the plate waiting for the ball to be thrown to him. He has to have the ball first, then move to tag the runner.  A runner can be called safe without touching the plate if a catcher without the ball blocks his direct path.   Unless the catcher has to move into a position of blocking the plate in order to field the ball and contact with the runner is unavoidable. Got that distinction? Good, because you are going to need it.  

 

Under the new rules, runners must stay on a direct path to the plate and cannot veer from it to hit a catcher who does not have the ball. This means he can’t hit the catcher in hopes of dislodging the ball or pushing him out of the flight path of the incoming ball. (Or throw a flying tackle like Cousins did to Posey, which was legal at the time.)    If the runner veers from the direct line to home in order to hit the catcher, the umpire can call him out even if he is not tagged. If the catcher has the ball and is blocking the plate, and the runner has to plow through him to get to home, so be it. He just can't make contact in a malicious manner (egregious is the word.) If he slides head first or feet first (basically some part of his body needs to hit the ground before he makes contact with the catcher) he will always be okay, but he cannot use his elbows, arms or shoulders to shove the catcher. So slide or dive, but don’t tackle, shove or push if you are heading home.

Collisions, however, happen in lots of ways and these two new rules have already collided. (Softball Diva, you know what I’m talking about.)  Hang with me on this one.

In the Yankees and Toronto game this past weekend, Yankee Francisco Cervelli charged toward home as Blue Jay Outfielder Colby Rasmus threw the ball to Blue Jay Catcher Josh Thole.  In order to field the ball that was thrown, Thole had to position himself in front of the plate before he had the ball. He tagged the runner and Cervelli was ruled out.  In the old days, this was okay. Under the new rules, not so good.  Yankee Manager Joe Girardi (who was a catcher in his playing days)  protested that Thole was blocking the plate and the umpire agreed there was cause for televised review. Upon review, the umpire ruled that the call stood.  In order to field the ball that was thrown, Thole had to block the plate and collision with runner was unavoidable. Cervelli was out. But instant replay also showed that Cervelli got his foot to the base before the tag. Because the review was of Thole’s position and not a challenge of whether Cervelli actually scored, the umpire could not change that part of the call.

Ironically, it was Joe Torre, former Yankees Manager and current MLB vice president of baseball operations, who said back in February, “It's going to be a little tricky because if the manager comes out and wants to question the safe-out call, then he uses the challenge. If he wants to check if he violated the collision rule, then that's not a challenge. It's like a home run; the umpire has the discretion.”  

Girardi was checking to see if Thole violated the collision rule, and wasn’t challenging whether the runner was safe or out. So the ruling came only on the collision question and the instant replay could not be used to challenge the safe at home question. If Girardi had challenged whether his runner was safe or not, the Yankees might have gotten the run.

Is your head spinning yet?  Yeah. Me, too. And we’ve only had one week of official baseball.  Everybody is still learning these rules and how to apply them for the maximum benefit of the team.  Prepare yourself for a bit more waiting in the game (perhaps a good time to refill your beverage?)  Instant replay is also supposed to also cut down on the epic enraged-manager-spitting-in-the-face-of-the-ump confrontation when a manager wants to protest a call.  We’ll see.  I think the traditionalists really won't let that one go without a fight.