"They are a little bit late getting to that rule" says Rick Dempsey.
On July 7, The Astros and the Angels were tied 10-10 in the bottom of the eighth inning. A sac-fly to right field by George Springer gave Houston's Jake Marisnick the go-ahead run to try and break the tie game. Marisnick ran a few steps left of the base line, completely colliding into Angels catcher Jonathan Lucroy. Lucroy was assisted by the Angels' training staff to help him stand up. Lucroy was carted off the field holding a towel to his bleeding nose. He was then taken to the hospital for a CT scan to be evaluated for a concussion and a broken nose.
Dempsey told the Big Bad Morning Show he remembers his first bad collision. "I was gone for almost three minutes that's a definite concussion, we didn't know anything about it back then. That was part of the game where guys could go out of the base line."
"You had to learn how to get out of the way and you had to learn how to set up getting out of home plate. Sometimes you were in it to take the beaten and sometimes you weren't. I've had guys throw elbows at me at Yankee stadium, I smartened up I wasn't big enough when I first came in."
Dempsey then commented on how he later on figured out how to handle close situations defending home.
"I learned later on in my career how to handle that sort of thing, let a guy think he is going to get a good shot at you in the upper-middle chest or the head and then you drop down on both knees and go for the bottom right leg or left leg depending…they started to think twice at the way they came in."
In 2014 MLB came out with a rule to ban collisions at home plate…just not all of them. MLB's specific rule is:
"A runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catch (or other player covering home plate". If, in the judgment of the Umpire, a runner attempting to score initiates contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate) in such a manner the Umpire shall declare the runner out (even if the player covering home plate loses possession of the ball). Unless the catch is in possession of the ball the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score. If in the judgment of the Umpire, the catcher, without possession of the ball, blocks the pathway of the runner, the Umpire shall call or signal the runner safe."
According to baseballstrength.org, a research found that only 66 concussions were reported in Major League Baseball from 2007-2013.
Does MLB need to reevaluate the rule?
