A week after their All-Star catcher sustained a season-ending injury in a collision with the Marlins' Scott Cousins, the San Francisco Giants have not exactly accepted Cousins' apology.
The New York Times reports the team is calling for a rule change which would prohibit home plate collisions like the one between Cousins and Posey in the 12th inning on May 25.
The Giants made it known that they think Cousins could have slid into home safely while avoiding a collision with their 2010 Rookie of the Year.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy compared the play to a fair catch in football, but with a catch. "Now, a catcher's defenseless. He's trying to catch the ball, and Buster wasn't blocking home plate. This guy had two paths to go and he elected to go after Buster and speared him. Buster has no chance there. He's trying to catch the ball."
Nevermind that in football a player has to call for a fair catch, Bochy called Cousins a headhunter, in so many words. General Manager Brian Sabean made roughly the same comparison.
"He chose the collision path," he told the Times. "He had a lane to be able to get to the plate — because Buster wasn’t blocking the plate — but he chose to spear him."
Cousins gave a "just doing my job/part of the game" rationalization after the game Wednesday, saying, "I'm not trying to end anybody's season or anything like that. I just was trying to play hard and score the go-ahead run."
He seemed empathetic afterward, though, saying "I feel bad for Buster Posey, I really do." But it sounds like he might be on the other side of a headhunting next time he steps in the batters box against San Francisco.
Regardless, it will be nice if the aftermath of the collision will at least put one of baseball's more blatant dangerous practices under more scrutiny. It seemed like a matter of time baseball would have its own version of the NFL's concussion debate (though the two problems themselves are quite distinct).
Certainly the Marlins, who have dealt with reckless collisions before, and whose own catcher is advocating for a rule change, would appreciate the effort to keep catchers safe.
David Hill is a Miami native and the cofounder of Marlins Diehards, the only blog with perspective on the eccentricities of Marlins fandom.
