TORONTO – Alex Rios’s jump off first base and sliding technique were right out of the textbook. He had second base stolen – until he popped up from his slide, a move he executed precisely as he was taught.
An advantage of a popup slide is that the runner can take off quickly if the throw sails into the outfield.
Harold Reynolds, another TV commentator and former infielder, said on the air that the call was “chintzy.”
“It’s not what the spirit of the rule was,” Reynolds said. “I get it, but this has got to be addressed by Major League Baseball.”
The challenge, of course, is to come up with a compromise between using replay as it was intended – to get the call right – and awarding a base to a runner who is somehow perceived to have deserved it.
Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki believes MLB officials should discuss the subject, but he admits he doesn’t know how the rule might be modified.
“This replay has really changed the game a little bit, because we, as infielders, are taught now and know how important it is to keep the tag on somebody, because it can change the game,” he said.
Naturally, Jays manager John Gibbons liked the outcome of the Rios play. He said Rios popped so far off the bag that “you’ve got to bang him on that.”
But like Boone and Reynolds, Gibbons said he feels uneasy with players called out on a trifle after an otherwise successful steal.
“I don’t think that was the intention of replay … Those guys are sliding hard, (and) whether it’s feet-first or head-first, there’s a lot of momentum. It’s tough to stay with the bag,” Gibbons said.
Those who agree with Gibbons stress that a Rios-type play is distinct from plays where a runner over-slides a base and is tagged out before he can get back. No runner deserves mercy for that.
Royals’ skipper Ned Yost seemed to side with the absolutist view voiced by Goins. He said it is “hard to draw the line” between using replay to get the call right and somehow applying a forgiving spirit to a technical mistake.
“The technology is so good right now you see things evolve in the game that they haven’t been doing, like before last year infielders wouldn’t hold the tag on the runner, they’d just tag and get off,” Yost said.
“And now because of instant replay, you see everybody holding the tag on the runner. And I think you’ll see slides evolve a little bit, too, where they’ll try to eliminate that little popup slide.”
Boone and Goins agreed. Runners must tweak their technique.
“It’s something you’ve got to deal with,” Goins said. “Guys have to learn how to slide where they don’t pop up. You have to do it different now.”
Rios may be taking that to heart. He had no beef with the replay decision. As he and Goins watched the replay on the stadium scoreboard screen, Goins said “there – you took your foot off,” and Rios had no argument.
“I did came off of the bag a little bit,” Rios said. “I knew I was out, but I was just waiting on the call.”
