by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

photo credit NY Daily News Utley sliding into Tajeda game 2 NLDS

LOS ANGELES–I watched the LA Dodgers Chase Utley’s slide so many times and he started the slide after he passed second base that should not be allowed and I agree with the two day suspension that Utley got as administered by Joe Torre in charge of MLB discipline. You want to be very careful I heard Torre said that the Arizona instructional league their teaching the players to slide into the base not around the base or not after the base.

What Utley did was that he started his slide after second base and he obviously took out the Mets shortstop Ruben Tajeda and broke his leg and Tajeda is out for the rest of the post season. Utley said it was a good slide but you should never slide after the base that’s what the bases are there for. To break your speed you should slide before the base and sometimes now you overrun the base.

I called a lot of games this year especially with the Angels on TV you overrun a base and an umpire calls him safe and then you go to the replay we see that the call is going to be decided by a fraction of an inch and the second baseman for example would throw to shortstop and the umpire would declare the runner out. This incident is going to be talked about now for the rest of this series between the Mets and Dodgers.

There could be some bad blood if the series goes on long enough and when Utley gets back in the Dodgers line up from the suspension. There could be fans cat calling and maybe some inside pitches thrown. The Mets are angry about losing Tajeda, although Utley got the two game suspension the Mets will be looking out for justice more than likely when Utley returns to the Los Angeles line up.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Angels Spanish TV voice and the A’s Spanish radio voice and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com