Change, Anyone?

In a game on May 25, San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey was run over in a home plate collision with Florida Marlins centerfielder Scott Cousins. It happened in the 12th inning of a game in which the Marlins had blown a four-run lead in the ninth inning but Cousins' run was the go ahead and game winning run. Unfortunately, the collision was so violent that Posey's fibula was broken and several ankle tendons strained leading to the prognosis that Posey is likely to miss the rest of the season. Every reaction I've heard, professionals or not, is that the play was clean. And as much as I hate to defend a Marlins player, I agree 100%. What surprised me was the sudden outcry for banning or somehow regulating collisions at home plate.

I don't mean to sound like an old-time purist, though maybe I am, but for as long as baseball has been played there have been home plate collisions. The basic rule is "if you're blocking home plate prepare for a collision." There doesn't need to be any rules or mandates about avoiding contact on close plays at the plate. It's really quite simple: 1) if you are the runner and don't want to have a collision, pull up or slide. 2) if you are the catcher and don't want to have a collision, don't block home plate. Catch the ball in front of home plate and try to swipe tag or even jump into the baseline once the ball -- and your self -- is secure. It's a question of machismo versus common sense. Thrown baseballs travel faster than baseballs being carried. So catchers try to maximize air time by catching a thrown ball as late as possible by straddling home plate. This may put a catcher in harm's way, but it's something a catcher signs up for as far back as Little League.

My questions are: What if it were not a star player but a reserve player on a last-place team? Would there still be the same outcry? Why now? Pete Rose infamously destroyed Ray Fosse in a home plate collision while scoring the winning run in the 1970 All-Star game. That's right, a separated shoulder for blocking the plate in an exhibition game. No rules were changed then. (Urban legend has it that the collision ruined Fosse's career but I found this interesting, Why Pete Rose Didn't Ruin Ray Fosse's Career. There's also a lot more post collision Fosse injury reports on Wikipedia... but I have to draw the line somewhere, don't I?)  So why try to change the rule now?

Just Joe