team sports house believes major league baseball should continue allow collisions

Collisions are much less a part of the game than people believe. The notion that collisions have been in the game for ages is a widely held misconception. In fact, collisions were specifically banned in baseball’s early history, and the collisions we see today came about only since around the late 1960s. Bill James, one of the best-respected authorities on baseball, wrote: “Basepath obstruction was a major problem in the 1880s and nineties, when baseball was in danger of becoming a contact sport. In 1897 the rules on obstruction were tightened up, and the principle of free access to the bases met with general acceptance at the other three positions. There was always something of a problem with catchers blocking the plate, but there were always limits.... I think it has changed a lot just in the last fifteen or twenty years. . . . I don’t remember [well-respected catchers] Elston Howard or Bill Freehan doing some of the things that [catchers] do now [in the 1980s].” [1]  Clearly, collisions are not a necessary part of the balance between offense and defense. Baseball did quite well for decades without allowing runners to crash into catchers. Just because something is now erroneously regarded as a “tradition” does not make it deserving of respect. Toughness in baseball is better measured by playing hard every day, rather than by meaningless, destructive collisions.  [1] “The MLB Rulebook, Bill James, and the Buster Posey–Scott Cousins Collision,” Misc. Baseball, May 26, 2011,  .

Collisions are a part of the game.  First, collisions are part of the tradition of baseball. They have been part of the game for a very long time. Fans, players, and managers all expect home plate hits to occur from time to time. “Some things are part of the game. There’s not a whole lot you can do,” said Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek, who has been on the receiving end of numerous crashes in his career. [1] Varitek’s manager at the time, Terry Francona, agreed: “Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt, but you got to play the game.” [2] And former catcher Brad Ausmus, who had also been hit multiple times in his career, echoed the sentiment: “[I]t's part of the game.… When you put on the shin guards and chest protector, you know that if there’s a play at the plate and you’re blocking the plate, you could take a hit at any moment.” [3] As the Associated Press put it, many people believe “home plate collisions are as much a part of baseball tradition as peanuts and Cracker Jacks and the seventh-inning stretch.” [4]  Second, home plate hits are an essential element of playing the game hard. Without them, baseball would be much less deserving of its nickname “hardball.” One commentator notes, “[An injury is] extremely unfortunate, but it's the result of a hard-nosed play that is as old as the game itself. To take away the potential for a high-intensity, physical play in an otherwise non-physical sport would be a mistake.” [5] In that vein, collisions are also part of the dynamic between the offense and defense that, once removed, will make the game much poorer: “A baserunner wants to get there at all costs, whereas a catcher wants to protect it at all costs. The mutual discomfort that's evoked in both the catcher and the baserunner as a play at the plate develops is one of the intriguing peculiarities that makes the game of baseball so great.” [6]  [1] Antonio Gonzalez, “Posey’s injury stirs debate on baseball collisions,” Associated Press, May 27, 2011,  .  [2] Ibid.  [3] Jayson Stark, “On a collision course,” ESPN.com (Rumblings &amp; Grumblings blog), May 28, 2011,  .  [4] Ibid.  [5] Ricky Doyle, “Buster Posey’s Injury Unfortunate, But Home-Plate Collisions Still Have Place in Baseball,” NESN, May 29, 2011,  .  [6] Ibid .

Collisions increase the risk of injury dramatically. Though it’s true that most collisions do not result in significant injury, they result in a higher rate of injury than almost any other baseball play. And just because a collision doesn’t necessarily result in an injury that derails a player’s entire career does not mean that it didn’t take a toll. This is especially true now that we’re learning more about concussions, which might be suffered without someone immediately realizing it. After a catcher on his team suffered a concussion in a collision, Yankees manager Joe Girardi referred to this type of injury as “so unpredictable. That’s what’s so scary.... You just don’t know what’s going to happen” with a concussion. [1]  When catchers are trained to block the plate, they’re taught how to reduce the risk of injury, not how to eliminate the risk of injury. No matter how a catcher positions himself, there will still be a risk of injury, and it will still be much higher than for any other play in baseball.  (Opposition Point #1 elaborates more upon the risk of injury.)  [1] Mark Feisand, “Yankees manager Joe Girardi not counting out catcher Francisco Cervelli for postseason roster,” New York Daily News, Sept. 17, 2011,  .

Collisions are exciting and fun to watch.  Baseball is a form of entertainment, and few plays are as entertaining as bang-bang plays (a close call on whether the runner is thrown out) at the plate. As a sport that’s often criticized for being too slow and boring—“baseball has no clock,” the saying goes [1] —it’s important that it hold onto perhaps the most dramatic, vivid play it has to offer. One columnist described it this way: “When [collisions] do occur, they’re exciting. We watch to see how well the catcher blocks the plate, how hard the runner slides, and whether the catcher can hold the ball. As dangerous as that play may be, it’s exciting to watch.” [2]  Other sports—like American football, ice hockey, and rugby—feature plenty of violent hits. Baseball has so few of them that when they do happen, they are doubly entertaining. It is just not necessary for baseball to prohibit a small dose of something that is extremely common in other sports.  [1] William Deresiewicz, “Metaphors We Play By,” American Scholar, June 6, 2011,  .  [2] Nick Cafardo, “Let’s keep rule change off our plate, please,” Boston Globe, May 29, 2011,  .

Collisions are often not entertaining, and when they are, it’s for the wrong reasons. Most collisions do not show two athletes engaged in a skilled showdown; they feature athletes awkwardly trying to achieve their goal (scoring or getting the out) without injuring themselves. It’s not fun or exciting.  Fans also tend to be horrified by the injuries they witness in these crashes. Watching Buster Posey’s leg snap at an odd angle was hardly entertaining or amusing; it was stomach-turning.  And if fans do find this sort of thing entertaining, they’re wrong to do so. Violence should not be glorified, at least not in this sport. Nobody should delight in watching baseball players put their careers in jeopardy. Baseball is fundamentally different from other sports; if people want to see athletes impose harmful blows on each other, they can watch boxing or ice hockey or ultimate fighting.

In the match-up between catchers and runners, home plate should be treated like the other bases. At first base, second base, or third base, fielders are expected not to block the base and runners are expected not to collide with the fielder. By imposing both of these requirements, neither the catcher nor the runner would have an unfair advantage. Each player would be required to contribute to a situation that allows both of them to avoid a collision.

Collisions are not as dangerous as they’re feared to be.  Some hits lead to injury, but the vast majority do not. One commentator challenged proponents of a rule change “to name as many as five MLB catchers in the last 30 years who have had their careers ended or shortened as a result of a home plate collision. Personally, I can’t think of one.” [1] In posing some—though not a substantial—risk, home plate collisions are very much like other aspects of the sport. Every time a pitcher throws a pitch, the batter could get struck and hurt. Every time two outfielders converge on a fly ball, there’s a risk of injury. Baseball, as with many other sports, inherently involves the risk of injury. It makes little sense to focus on this play, which doesn’t often result in significant injury.  Moreover, catchers are trained to position their bodies in ways that minimize the injury risk from crashes. [2] If catchers do as they’re trained, they’re very unlikely to get hurt.  [1] Joe Janish, “Buster Posey Aftermath: What Should Be Done?,” On Baseball, May 30, 2011,  (internal quotation marks omitted).  [2] See, for example, “Relays, Cutoffs, and Plays at Home,” Baseball-Catcher.com,  .

Without collisions, either the catcher or the runner would have an enormous and unfair advantage.  There are two often-discussed ways to change the rules: require the runner to slide, just as they must do when attempting to reach other bases; or disallow catchers to block runners’ paths. Each results in an imbalance between the catcher and runner. A commentator describes this dynamic very well:  “If Major League Baseball was to employ a rule stating that runners must avoid contact with the catcher—similar to the ‘slide or avoid’ rule employed in amateur baseball—it would give the advantage to the catcher. The catcher would have the benefit of dictating the course of action that a baserunner must take, and would—perhaps more importantly—have peace of mind knowing that there is no chance of an ensuing collision. If Major League Baseball was to make a rule stating that the catcher cannot block the plate, the advantage would certainly go to the baserunner, who would enjoy the luxury of a straight path to the most sacred ground on a baseball diamond.” [1]  Allowing collisions is the fairest, most even match between the catcher and runner.  [1] Ricky Doyle, “Buster Posey’s Injury Unfortunate, But Home-Plate Collisions Still Have Place in Baseball,” NESN, May 29, 2011,  .

Collisions are an occasionally necessary part of the game. When two professional athletes are involved in a dramatic, exciting play that could change the direction of a game (or decide the outcome of the entire season), they will do whatever they can to ensure the play turns out favourably for their team. That means that collisions will occur. To try to remove this aspect of baseball is to ask the players to do something that is completely at odds with their objective: to score, or to prevent the run from scoring.  Though home-plate collisions are prohibited in amateur leagues, the stakes are different. MLB players are paid millions of dollars to score—or prevent—runs. They should be permitted to do what they’re handsomely paid to do.

Collisions are not as dangerous as they’re made out to be. (Proposition Argument #3 is directly relevant here, though it’s not repeated in this cell.) People remember vivid example of injuries in home-plate crashes, but that does not mean that they happen as often as people believe. This is a textbook example of the availability heuristic: people believing that an event is much more likely because they can think of an example of it very easily. [1] Yes, those injuries were quite bad, but it was their very severity that leads people to overestimate the frequency and severity of home-plate collisions in general.  Any simulation of a hit at home plate will be imperfect. In a game situation, a runner will have to make a split-second decision of whether to slide around the catcher or to barrel into him, and this will often reduce his speed or remove the decisiveness of his impact. The catcher is also wearing protective pads. The crash-test dummy does not accurately represent reality.  If a team does not want its catchers to be involved in collisions, it can instruct them to avoid collisions, just as the Oakland Athletics did. This is their choice; they have decided that the risk is not worth it. But this is not a reason for MLB to step in and change the rules.  Fans want to see players playing their hardest. A player is much less exciting to watch if he’s always worried first and foremost about whether a particular action is going to injure him. Yes, there’s always a risk of injury, but fans understand that, and they still want to see collisions and players giving their all.  [1] See Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, “Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability,” Cognitive Psychology, 1973, 4, pp. 207-232,  .

Collisions are an example of violence that has no place in baseball.  Baseball is not a contact sport. It is not a sport that is supposed to rely on violence. This is one commentator’s point: “if you want to watch violent collisions, you can watch [American] football. Or hockey. Or MMA. There’s no reason baseball needs to have similar kinds of plays; it’s an entirely different sport with a different premise and different rules.” [1]  Baseball tries to make the game safe for its players. That’s why beanballs—pitches that endanger hitters—are disallowed. Baseball should not promote violence, and it certainly shouldn’t allow it when players’ careers hang in the balance.  [1] Dave Cameron, “It’s Time to End Home Plate Collisions,” FanGraphs, May 26, 2011,  .

Collisions heighten antagonisms.  When someone gets hurt in a collision at the plate, the injured player’s teammates are more likely to hold a grudge—and to try to get even. There are numerous opportunities to do that, whether by aiming a pitch at that player, or by seeking another opportunity to hurt him. When Posey was injured, the Giants’ General Manager Brian Sabean said, “If I never hear from Cousins [who hit Posey] again or if he never plays another game in the big leagues, I think we’ll all be happy.... We’ll have a long memory.” [1] This is exactly the unsportsmanlike behaviour engendered by these dangerous and unnecessary plays.  Former MLB catcher Mike Matheny noted that catchers don’t forget when they get hit, saying, “I think you just put a mark in the column that that kid took a run at a catcher. To me as a catcher I know the next time I get the ball I'm going to stick it to him. You make those notes as a catcher.” [2]  [1] “Source: Joe Torre to call Brian Sabean,” ESPN.com News Services, June 3, 2011,  .  [2] R.B. Fallstrom, “Matheny critical of Cousins’ hit on Posey,” Associated Press, May 30, 2011,  .

Collisions are unnecessary.  Baseball doesn’t need collisions. By requiring the runner to slide, just as they must do when attempting to reach other bases, or disallowing catchers to block runners’ paths, or—best of all—requiring both those steps, baseball can eliminate collisions.  Unlike in football or rugby, hits at the plate are not a necessary component of the sport. The game is played quite well at the amateur level without such brutal physical contact. [1] Collisions occur relatively infrequently, and the complexion of the game will not be dramatically different without them. Yet the benefits of improved safety are dramatic.  [1] See, for example, American Legion Baseball Rules, Rule 1(E),  .

Collisions are dangerous and lead to injury.  Ray Fosse and Buster Posey (mentioned above in the Introduction) are just two examples of players who suffered major injuries in crashes at home plate. Texas Rangers star Josh Hamilton, reigning Most Valuable Player of the American League, broke his arm when he collided with a catcher in 2011. In August 2010, Cleveland Indians catcher Carlos Santana suffered a season-ending knee injury when he was hit by Red Sox runner Ryan Kalish. To go back a few more seasons, Braves catcher Greg Olson was having a career year in 1992 until Ken Caminiti broke his leg in a collision. There have been literally dozens of severe injuries suffered in bang-bang plays at the plate.  This high rate of injury should come as no surprise, given the physics involved in this type of play. A simulation with a crash-test dummy wired with sensors showed that a catcher can get hit by a runner travelling 18 miles per hour, resulting in 3,200 pounds of force—much worse than an American football hit, with much less padding. [1]  Teams make heavy investments in their players, paying them millions of dollars a year. Thus, serious injuries are very expensive, both because of the treatment required and because the player is missing many games. This is why the Oakland Athletics instructed their top catcher, Kurt Suzuki, to avoid blocking the plate—because their investment in him is worth more than whatever runs he allows by failing to stop the runner from scoring. [2]  When players are injured in these plays, it’s also bad for fans, who will lose the opportunity to see their favourite athletes on the field. As Bruce Bochy, Busty Posey’s manager with the Giants, told the media after he lost his star catcher to injury: “And here’s a guy that’s very popular in baseball. Fans want to see him play, and now he’s out for a while.” [3]  [1] Joel Siegel, Barbara Pinto, and Tahman Bradley, “Catcher Collision Ignites Baseball Rules Debate,” ABC News, May 28, 2011,  .  [2] Buster Olney, “Billy Beane issues home plate directive,” ESPN The Magazine, June 1, 2011,  .  [3] Tim Kawakami, “Bochy on Posey’s injury: ‘Hopefully the guys are not happy—I’m certainly not happy,’” MercuryNews.com (Talking Points blog), May 26, 2011,  .

A clean hit will not heighten tensions between teams. Players recognize when a collision is “dirty” and when it is entirely within the rules and spirit of the game. After the Posey hit, a baseball columnist summed up “the consensus viewpoint” of baseball professionals and journalists: “It was a clean play.” [1]  In the 2011 playoffs, Texas Rangers Mike Napoli was barrelled over by Sean Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Angels. Napoli said afterward, “It was a fine, clean play. He was trying to score. I’m going to try to do the same thing if I’m trying to score and a guy is blocking the plate in that moment.” [2] As long as a player is not intending to hurt another and does not use unnecessary force, players on both teams are unlikely to hold grudges.  The threat of retaliation for “dirty” hits is actually a useful deterrent to gratuitous force. Players are much less likely to hurt each other if they know that there will be consequences for that behaviour.  [1] Bruce Jenkins, “Buster Posey’s injury provokes anger, reflection,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 2011,  .  [2] Richard Durrett, “Catcher Mike Napoli fine after collision,” ESPN.com, October 5, 2011,  .

Some level of violence is called for in baseball. Just because most plays in baseball do not involve contact does not mean that no plays should involve contact. It has been a part of the game for decades, so it is false to argue that it is not part of the game, or to assert that baseball is not a contact sport at all.  There is also a clear difference between violence that is intended to injure an opponent—for example, in a boxing match or an ice hockey fight—and physical contact that is aimed at a valid objective, such as scoring a run. A beanball is not a way to achieve a valid objective. In addition, a beanball is much more dangerous than a collision at home plate. A beanball has resulted in a fatality at an MLB game [1] ; no home-plate collision has even come close.  [1] “Beaned by a Pitch, Ray Chapman Dies,” New York Times, Aug. 17, 1920,  .