MLB avoided a major ongoing controversy by having the Mets prevail in the NLDS over the Dodgers. Yes, SU is talking about Chase Utley. As we all know, the blown call on the Utley slide would not have guaranteed victory for the Mets in game 2 as it was still in the 7th inning and a 1-run lead. But if the Dodgers had won last night, that would have been the key play of the series. Now Utley can serve his suspension at the start of the 2016 season. SU asks: has a suspension ever been increased upon appeal? That would be a nice development and appropriate in this instance.
DeGrom was gutsy last night as he was on the brink of being lifted several times. Syndegaard must have pitched about 14 innings worth of pitches warming up in the bullpen. SU likes how Terry Collins rolled the dice by going with Famillia for 2 innings and left himself open to be second-guessed. Clearly, he has been studying the Joe Torre post-season handbook. Funny how that works. It’s not a huge story when it works but if Famillia had imploded, this would have had legs right into spring training and could even have cost Collins his job in the off-season.
Lucas Duda did his A-Rod post-season impersonation but really took it to another level of badness. SU asks this question: when they are over-shifting against you and all you can seem to do is strike out, why not practice bunting in your spare time and surprise them with a bunt double? Duda has plenty of company across baseball. They are just giving it to you and if you are successful enough, they will stop shifting. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.
SU hates the Jose Bautista bat flip. I am not so old school that any emotion is a bad thing. Quite the contrary – the curtain calls in the dugout are fine and it’s just a game – have some fun. But he flipped it at the Rangers’ dugout. And this is a dude who goes crazy if you pitch him even a little inside as he stands right on top of the plate. Of course, everyone admires his late career productivity with the long ball. Clearly a result of extra time in the weight room. The Blue Jays are a nice story and it’s great for Canada but he needs to tone it down.
Finally, SU is fired up for Michigan – Michigan State tomorrow. ESPN Game Day will be in Ann Arbor as will long-time SU subscriber S. Levine and her classmates. It’s great for the rivalry and the Big Ten. Jim Harbaugh has made Michigan football watchable again. I don’t love the QB but they have a great defense and a lot of confidence. Go Blue!
Sports Update Intergalactic 
+1 on the Bautista bat flip. It’s not quite as bad as Roger Clemens’ emotional bat flip but it’s close. I’ll speak for Little League coaches across the country who are horrified by this as we can now expect it to be the next bad behavior that kids start emulating. Worse is how the media was focused on the response to Bautista. Should a pitcher complain? Should a batter get hit? The conversation should change from “What is the right response?” to “Bautista looks like a fool.”
Very fun series to watch regardless of who won at the end. I’m glad no controversies are going to carry over into the off season. I think both Collins and Mattingly did a great job of managing their teams and also on keeping things focused on baseball and not MMA skills.
I’m looking forward to the Michigan / Michigan State game. I hope it turns out better than the previous “game of the season” fiasco that was Alabama vs. Georgia.
Sorry, Howard, but I have to disagree on both counts. The bat flip came with the score tied late in an elimination game, and at the end of one of the craziest and most emotional innings any of us has ever seen. If it had happened in the 3rd inning of a game in June, I’d agree with you. I’d also agree with you if Bautista had taunted the Rangers on his way around the bases, or done a cartwheel into home plate or something like that. But an over-the-top bat flip literally one second after essentially winning the series for the Jays? He gets an emotional get of jail free card from me on that one.
As for Utley, I really think the NY blinders make it impossible to see that play clearly. I’m an umpire, and that play has been talked to death on various umpire related forums. The general consensus is that at the major league level, that’s a borderline legal play. At every other level of baseball, it’s a double play and probably an ejection, but MLB has explicitly allowed and implicitly encouraged it for as long as any of us have been alive.
Personally, I hate it, and wish MLB would change the rule to something similar to what we have in HS and college, where the runner is required to slide directly into the base. But as the rules (and more importantly, the MLB umpire’s manual, which provides interpretations for the rules and how to apply them) currently stand, I don’t see how you can suspend Utley for that. It was an overreaction to a very unfortunate outcome.
It’s a little umpire wonky, but there’s a great writeup on the play here:
http://www.closecallsports.com/2015/10/replay-review-late-slides-too-utleys.html
Agree with Shep on Utley. It was ugly but it happens all the time. I feel like I see Mark Texiera do a couple of those each season. I wouldn’t mind them getting rid of it though. Straight slides only into the base. There would still be some entertaining acrobatics by the fielders. No loss to the game.
Disagree on Bautista. He didn’t taunt but he threw the bat. Hard and far and with intent (if not with thought). I don’t care if he’s trying to taunt or show up the pitcher or not. He did something foolish and we should all acknowledge it and not leave the criticism up to the opposing pitcher.
If you’re getting umpire wonky the other play that didn’t matter was the Russell Martin throw to the pitcher that hit the batters bat and allowed a run to score. I believe the ultimately figured out the right call but I’m bothered that they let the runner score. You can clearly see the umpire waving his hands and calling the play dead before sending the runner back to third. When the umpire does this, all the fielders would let up and stop attempting to make any play. While it may be likely that the runner would beat out any play at home, anything can happen in a play at the plate, it’s just too big a play to just allow the runner to score.
I was bothered by the Martin play, too. The umpire clearly messed up and called time erroneously. Most of the time, when that happens the umpire has to eat a sh*t sandwich, send everyone back, and essentially call a do-over (and probably eject whichever manager was disadvantaged by his mistake). In this case, they decided to fix the mistake under the premise that it was 100% certain the runner would have scored had the umpire not called time. That’s allowed by rule, but I still have a hard time with it. Who knows what would have happened if he hadn’t called time? Maybe the runner trips. Maybe he misses home plate in his excitement. Maybe the third baseman makes a superhuman play and throws him out at home. We’ll never know, because he called time.