Baseball gamesmanship never takes a slide

I HAVE ALWAYS said that the baseball season is my favorite season. A single baseball game during the regular season isn't quite as exciting as an NFL game or a great college basketball tilt, but nothing compares to the baseball season. Because there are so many games and it spans more than half of the year, it has an ebb and flow about it unlike any other sport.

If you thought your team was a contender but by the middle of June it is five games under .500, you were despondent. But then they rip off an eight-game winning streak and they are right back in the thick of things. No matter how bad your team might have played during the year, if it gets hot in September, it can catch lightning in a bottle and win it all!

During the long baseball season, we see players evolve right before our eyes. The rookie who is over-matched in April can become a dominant pitcher down the stretch in September. Then there are the one-month wonders like "Hurricane" Bob Hazle, who was called up from the minor leagues by the Milwaukee Braves in 1957 and hit .403 in 41 games, helping the Braves win the pennant; they went on to beat the New York Yankees in win the World Series. Every Braves fan thought they had a future superstar, but Hazle played only one more season in the major leagues.

The baseball playoffs are something special as well. Because there are so many regular-season games, a single game does not have the tense atmosphere that a playoff game has (especially the "one and done" wild-card games). The playoffs are often riveting and sometimes even magical.

This year, the early playoff series have been incredible: the unbelievable power hitting of the young upstart Cubs; the spectacular pitching in the Mets-Dodgers series (especially Clayton Kershaw's clutch performance that saved the Dodgers from elimination); the Kansas City Royals' "refuse to lose" comebacks in their series against the Astros and, best of all, the Blue Jays-Rangers series. That series, in particular, encompassed everything that is wacky and wonderful about the baseball playoffs.

The Rangers, led by Cole Hamels, went into Toronto and won the first two games. They seemed to be in a great position because the series was shifting to Texas and the Rangers only needed to win one more game. But on the road the Jays found their mojo and pounded the ball as they had done all season.

The series returned to Toronto for Game 5 and our friend Cole took the mound, which was a good omen for the Rangers because they had won the previous 11 games Hamels had started. He did not disappoint, and pitched the Rangers into a 3-2 lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning. But the Rangers committed three straight infield errors to load the bases. Then another old friend, Ben Revere, hit a one-hop grounder to first. The first baseman threw to home for a force out, and as the catcher was about to throw it to first, the Rangers runner slid into him, throwing him off balance and preventing the doubleplay. The Rangers protested, claiming interference and that the doubleplay should have been allowed. They lost the argument, and Jose Bautista followed with a 442-foot, three-run home run off reliever Sam Dyson - and that was all she wrote.

Upon launching the ball into the air, Bautista also launched his bat. Tempers then flared and both teams stormed the field after Dyson approached Toronto's next hitter, slugger Edward Encarnacion, mistakenly believing Encarnacion was trying to encite the crowd, while instead he was trying to calm it down. The tossing of the bat became a controversy that raged across social media.

Earlier in the game, Texas was awarded the go-ahead run on a bizarre play where Toronto catcher Russell Martin, returning the ball to the pitcher, hit the the bat of Shin-Soo Choo. It enraged the 50,000-plus Jays fans and they pelted the field with debris.

Frankly, I did not know Canadians had that much passion, but it seems like the Jays have united the whole country behind them. The noise level during that game was deafening.

The collision at home plate made everyone think of the controversy that occurred in Game 2 of the Mets-Dodgers series when former Phillie, Chase Utley, broke up a doubleplay by making a hard slide that broke Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada's leg. Chase's slide was late and wasn't directly aimed at the base (although as he slid, he reached out his hand to touch the base). The umpire ruled the slide to be legal and because he broke up the doubleplay, the Dodgers went on to have a big inning and won the game. Without Chase's slide they would have lost three straight and would have been eliminated. Again, all hell broke lose on the internet and Mets fans and most of New York pictured Chase as a villain on par with Hannibal Lecter.

I saw the play as it happened and viewed many replays subsequently. I have no problem with what Chase did. He truly was not trying to hurt Tejada but was desperately trying to break up the doubleplay during a crucial juncture of the game. Interestingly, a picture surfaced on the Internet of Mets captain David Wright sliding into Utley, when Utley was with the Phillies, with a rolling block hitting him on the upper part of his left leg in a game on June 21, 2013. Wright's slide was every bit as late as Chase's and was not directed at the base.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, looking at the picture said, "It was the exact same slide," and Mattingly noted that no one said a thing about it. He opined that if Chase hadn't broken Tejada's leg there wouldn't have been any controversy, and that Mets fans would have said, "Hey, David Wright is a gamer" if he had done the same thing.

Wright is a gamer and so is Utley. They are both quintessential examples of what a true baseball player should be. They give 110 percent at all times and will do anything to help their team win. It's the way baseball has been played for decades, and it's what makes the game so exciting.

I know I am in the minority on this issue and that it won't be long before there's a new rule making it absolutely clear that these types of slides are illegal. When that happens, a lot of great baseball players who laid the foundation for the way the game ought to be played will be rolling over in their graves.