Majors Follow SFLOI Precedent by Havelock Hews

   The major league baseball rules committee recently came to the same conclusion that Softball For The Love Of It had.  It is going to stop home plate collisions.  Or try to.  The committee is now conjuring what set of rules and regulations will be employed.
   Judging from our experience, it will not be without controversy.  Despite our rule against collisions (the runner is out if he collides with the catcher) there has been a running "dialogue" between the more adventurous runners in the league and the catchers.  Our rule has worked to the extent that we have eliminated full-body contact and the worst of the injuries. Still, there is a physical battle between the hard-sliding runner and the catcher. The runners (think Alex Rivera) claim that the catchers (think Havelock Hewes)  must give an open pathway to home plate and, if there is no pathway, the runner has no choice but to push the catcher out of the way with a hard slide.  Having been the catcher on many occasions, I know that in order to make an effective tag the catcher must hold the ball in front of home plate, the same way an infielder does in front of a base.  If the throw beats the runner, the runner is pretty much out.  This is not how the runners see it.  The runners believe that the catcher needs to stand to the side of the base and swing his arm, pendulum-like across where he hopes the runner will be.  The result of the two interpretations has been, in my case, several bruised shins and one trip into orbit.  The orbit occurred a couple of years ago when Alex's sliding foot kicked my stationary foot so hard that my body spiraled 360 degrees and I landed, on my feet, right where I had been.
  It will be interesting to see what the major leagues come up with.