It’s been nearly a decade since the Mets beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2015 NLDS. That means it’s also almost been 10 years since Ruben Tejada broke his leg after Chase Utley slid into second base to break up a double play.
Who was at fault for this? I guess the answer to that question depends on who you ask. But since Major League Baseball made a rule after this incident, there’s no way anyone would think Tejada was in the wrong here, right? Right?!
Enter former Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. with the worst take in the history of the world. He was interviewed by the guys on Foul Territory TV this week and had this to say about that play:
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I’m sorry…what? You’re blaming Tejada for the fact that he got his leg broken on that play?? That’s just ridiculous.
Now, I wasn’t a middle infielder during my playing days, so it’s hard for me to have a concrete opinion when it comes to turning a double play at second base. But correct me if I’m wrong, folks — if Ruben actually wanted to turn that double play, what other option did he have outside of spinning to put some heat behind his throw? Because that’s what he was clearly attempting to accomplish.
While the basis of Amaro’s opinion smells like hot garbage, I can agree with him that Utley didn’t go into that slide trying to hurt Tejada. There was no way for him to know Ruben was going to turn his back toward him to make a throw to first base. While this is an unpopular opinion among other Mets fans, I don’t think there was any ill will behind this slide.
Utley was an old-school player and he always went into second base hard. But if we had to put fault on one player or the other here, it’s on Utley. Once again, if MLB didn’t think anything was wrong with this slide or sequence of events, they wouldn’t have made a rule to change things.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
