Texas Rangers lost by violating Chase Utley and Buster Posey rules when they didn’t

Somewhere on that great baseball field in the sky, Ray Fosse threw a fit when watching the Texas Rangers game on Tuesday night in Chicago.

The late catcher of the Oakland A’s, who despite a solid career was unfortunately eternally linked to his infamous collision with Pete Rose in the 1970 MLB All-Star game, knew there was a price associated with home plate. For the catcher. For the runner.

In MLB’s efforts to make the game safer, which professional sports’ code to protect multi-million dollar players from suffering injury, it has gone from “sound” to “stupid.”

For the second time in a little more than a year, the Rangers lost a game thanks to a rule change that can be fixed with common sense.

The Rangers have lost games by “violating” the Chase Utley and Buster Posey Rules.

In the eighth inning on Tuesday night in Chicago against the White Sox, Rangers catcher Jonah Heim successfully tagged out White Sox shortstop Elvis Andrus on a play at the plate.

(FWIW: Andrus was traded by the Rangers to the A’s in 2021 in a deal that included Johan Heim).

The home plate umpire called Andrus out. Because he was.

Unlike the days of Fosse, Johnny Bench, Mike Scioscia or even Pudge Rodriguez, Heim knew MLB’s new rules about home plate: He was out of the way, and Andrus could continue his stride, or complete a slide, without fear of a collision.

Other than it was a baseball play in a baseball game, Heim’s sequence with Andrus bore zero resemblance to Posey and Cousins.

Heim was close enough to tag the runner, without being in his way.

The White Sox took a shot and challenged the call. Now that instant replay is everywhere in our lives, the call was reviewed by MLB officials in New York.

Officials reviewed that Heim essentially blocked the plate, and the White Sox were awarded the run in a 7-6 win.

It was called a “slide rule” violation.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy was ejected as he argued a call that the umpires themselves didn’t even make. Even the White Sox announcers, who are paid to be biased for the home team, agreed the gone was wrong.

After the game Bochy told reporters at the game, “Absolutely one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen.”

Says a lot considering Bochy has managed MLB games for 26 years. He was the manager of the San Francisco Giants during the moment that effectively created this rule.

MLB put in this rule after Giants catcher Buster Posey suffered a major ankle injury in a 2011 game when he tried to block the plate against Marlins outfielder Scott Cousins. Posey was out for the rest of the season.

Instant replay was implemented to correct the calls that the human eye miss, not add even more.

MLB offered this laughable explanation: “Definitively determined that the catcher was in violation of the home plate collision rule.

“The catcher’s initial positioning was illegal and his subsequent actions while not in possession of the ball hindered and impeded the runner’s path to home plate.”

This is another example of an employee justifying their paycheck, and stringing together a bunch of legal-sounding jargon that read like manure.

Tuesday night is another example of MLB’s rule amendments that sound good, but include no space for common sense.

This is the second time in a little more than a year that the Rangers have been on the wrong end of an awful video review that denied rational eyes, and thought.

In the Rangers home opener in 2022, they essentially lost the game against Colorado in the bottom of the 10th inning when MLB replay officials went too far to enforce the “Chase Utley Rule.”

This is the rule implemented to discourage the runner at first base from trying to behead the shortstop or second baseman from being able to turn a double play.

Mitch Garver of the Rangers slid into second base, and Rockies second baseman Brendan Rodgers’ throw to first was wide which allowed a run to score, and the game to continue.

The Rockies challenged the call, and replay officials ruled that Garver violated the rule. He was out. The game ended on that (horrible) call.

What Heim, and Garver, did wasn’t even hard baseball. It was the stuff that you would see on a Little League, or high school, field.

They were both competing well within the lines of new rules implemented to prevent injury, (and save money).

The Chase Utley and Buster Posey Rules are well intended, and their respective enforcement requires rational, not rash, judgment.