FanPost

Chase Utley Failed as a Human Being

I despise what Chase Utley did last night. I do not despise Chase Utley, but while he succeeded as a ballplayer, he failed as a human being.

First of all, this was business as usual. Steve Schreiber posted this video showing a similarly nasty takeout slide on Ruben Tejada from 2010. The interesting thing is that you can see that the first thing that Utley does is ask Ruben if he's OK. In my view, for Utley, it's business, not personal. Chase knows how baseball works. In the culture of baseball as it is now, that was an acceptable play. Last night's takeout, was also an acceptable (albeit borderline) play according to how baseball works. Until it is not an acceptable play, it's going to continue to happen. As a side note, also, because he knows how baseball works, he immediately ran off the field before a fight could begin. And he knows that there will be retaliation, as part of how baseball works.

I went over to the SB Dodger site to check out their reaction. It was exactly as you might imagine. There were some diehards irrationally defending anything that favored their team. There were the lawyers defending the legality of the play. And there were a lot of very reasonable people as well who hated the brutality of the play, and plainly did not feel good about winning that way. I could empathize with that feeling; everyone's team is unfairly benefitted at some time.

Among the ballplayers, it is pretty much the same. You get Ron Darling, who apparently was so pissed that he was off mic for several minutes; Cal Ripken gives the lukewarm defense of it as a "baseball play"; you can see Victorino's take here if you want your blood to boil, among others. On the far end off the spectrum you get guys like Pete Rose. Here's his old school take on Josh Donaldson's manliness. No doubt, he is going to be very supportive of Utley's slide. And that's the range of reactions you're going to find on any play of this nature.

OK, I'll admit that I "hate" Chase Utley, but I do not hate him. I "hate" Chase Utley not for any rational reason, but because he was the living symbol of all I hated in those Phillies. Knowing that my feelings would change near 180 degrees, I'd imagine, if he had been a Met. Every team has had those guys you "hate" unless he's on your team. I can't think of any Mets like that off the top my head -- the entire 1986 team perhaps.

Isaac Asimov said, "Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right." I would argue that Utley makes this mistake. To me as a spectator, it is infuriating, then depressing to see, because of what it shows us about human beings. To the same degree that I am uplifted by Curtis Granderson, both on and off the field, as an example of the best instincts of humans, I am saddened by Chase Utley's failed instincts.

I hate the play last night because it was legal but 100% wrong. I hate the play because of the incoherent, adding-insult-to-injury ruling by the umpires. I hate the play because of Ruben's injury. And I hate the play because Utley's sense of gamesmanship was stronger than his sense of right and wrong. And because you can find hundreds of current and ex-ballplayers who are just the same. And because that's the state of the game I love more than any other.


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