BLOG: Posey's Injury Shouldn't Change The Game
An event that happens from time to time in Baseball happened again. In a tie ball game in San Francisco in an attempt to break a tie Florida Marlins outfielder Scott Cousins collided with Giants catcher Buster Posey. He scored to give the Marlins the lead but that is not the story coming out of that game. During the collision Posey got his ankle caught underneath him in what looked to be a horrendous injury. Well, we learned Thursday that Posey has a broken bone in his leg and he will likely be out for the rest of the season. To say this is a huge loss to the Giants is an understatement. Posey broke onto the scene in late 2009 but his full impact wasn't felt until 2010. He hit .305 with 18 home runs and 67 RBI. He won the rookie of the year and help lead the Giants to their first world championship since 1954. So you can see his impact, so with all that being said Posey's injury sparked a huge debate all over major league baseball.
I think it's a sad time that we live in where every time something bad happens a change needs to be made. Buster Olney, a well-respected baseball writer for ESPN, made it very clear how he feels about home plate collisions. Olney tweeted that MLB should step in and ban catchers from blocking home. Look it sucks that someones season is lost on just one play, however how many times does this happen in baseball and of those times how often is the injury this serious. You can get injured doing numerous things in baseball, something as simple as running to first base can cause some kind of injury. If a player slides into second base head first and breaks 3 fingers would you ban head first sliding, no of course you wouldn't. You also would have to change the way all these catchers have been taught to play the game, not to mention you would be taking away one of the most exciting plays in baseball. One of the most iconic moments in all of baseball was when Pete Rose plowed over Ray Fosse to win the 1970 All Star Game. No offense to Buster Olney but I am not willing to rid baseball of great moments like that, people get hurt it's just something that happens.
This is what has started to turn me off about the NFL, every time a big name gets hurt we have to change how the game is played. I don't have to state the difference in physicality between the two sports, and certain things in football shouldn't be tolerated. I hate to keep beating a dead horse but in sports you have injuries, they happen it shouldn't change the way they play. It forces them to not play as hard because they don't want to get fined or suspended for their actions. Athletes should not be punished for playing hard, it sends the wrong message. I feel bad for Buster Posey and I enjoy watching him play but I'm sure he won't change the way he plays after this injury and he shouldn't be forced to either.
Andy Snakovsky - 105.7 The Fan Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/AndySnakovsky
