by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–It happened at Tropicana Field home of the Tampa Bay Rays, yesterday, the new rule commonly known as the “slide rule” brought the first controversy of the young 2016 season. “Maybe we’ll wear dresses tomorrow” said Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons after his team lost because of the new slide rule after Jose Bautista tried to break up a double play at second base, in the top of the ninth inning.

 When Gibbons found lots of criticism in this politically correct society we live in today regarding that quote,  he added later in relation to what he said: “Mom found it funny”.  Colleague and MLB Network Eric Byrnes, who played for 11 seasons in the majors and (as we all recalled) played very hard said “Bautista’s play is a product of a “wussified world”. If that is what Byrnes said, we can all imagine what Pete Rose would say XXXX(censored).

I find myself agreeing with Byrnes. We all take risks everyday in our lives, in every profession, every time we drive to work, to a ballgame, life is filled with risks. Granted, I do not want baseball to be like football, because it is just not that type of sport, but the way we are going, someday a hitter running into second base instead of sliding he will bring a tray cookies and milk to the second baseman.

And yes, -and I repeat- baseball is not like the NFL, you are not supposed to initiate body blows intentionally, but baseball still a competitive sport played by men making money than most of us could only dream off. It could be a slippery slope the way the game of baseball is going, running the bases and sliding, it might be someday replaced by stuff like the “do no slide rule anyway”, because you are going to be out.

When we played Little League they gave awards to the first, second and third places after the season ended, today some places they give trophies to every kid that plays. We do no want to be rude or offend anybody, we say we want to be fair, but is Byrnes correct. are we becoming wussified? The “slide rules”or “Utley rule”, because what happened last year in the playoffs when Chase Utley slid at second base and fracture Ruben Tejada’s leg. And we remember the nasty collision at home plate in 2011 which is remembered as the Buster Posey rule. Any of us who broadcast, writes, report and covers the game of baseball can see how things are changing, not only the clock in between innings and the instant replays.

Baseball is truly a unique sport. You do not have 5 seconds left to win the game with a 20 foot shot, or a 2 minute warning to win the game in the fourth quarter, or a goal to score in soccer to end a tied game. The game of baseball was invented by very wise folks, just like our forefathers that wrote the US Constitution, we have to be careful if we tweak it, and tweak it and then, we will have basically a brand new ballgame. What’s next the designated hitter in the National League full time?