Is This Pie Or A Play At The Plate?

Leo Durocher's Porno Money Shot

From a P-D article:

At issue is whether Pujols could have slid around Towles instead of through Towles to score Tuesday night. Towles said he gave Pujols "enough of the plate" to get around. The Cardinals didn't see that sliver. They teach the catcher to give a slice of the plate for the runner to slide toward.

La Russa contends Pujols did as he was instructed.

"I thought Albert did (Towles) a favor by just sliding to take his legs out," he said. "The kid is not giving anything to slide at, so that's what we teach — to slide in and take the legs out. He's going to get blasted one of these days."

The talk about slivers and slices and paths to the plate sounds more like a nursery rhyme or James Joyce novel than a baseball discussion. I cannot believe that I've never heard this shit before.

I've played a lot of sports at very mediocre levels and a few at abysmal levels, though in fairness most of those involved loads of booze, extreme hangovers or combinations thereof. The only place I ever excelled was behind the plate. For some reason, when catching I was tenacious, utterly fearless, and arrogant beyond all measure from the time I was about 8.

I was taught to be aggressive and the rules for blocking the plate are the quintessential example of this. I was told you get a couple of feet up the 3rd base line and plant your left foot towards 3rd with the shin guard as protection and keep your right foot towards the incoming ball. That way if you go down on a knee to catch the ball and brace for impact, your exposed right thigh is back and the left shin guard takes the spikes. Always bluff that the throw is coming on time and on line. If at the last minute it isn't, then get the hell out of the way fast. It isn't your job to keep the runner happy and healthy. He should have been taught to take instructions from the on-deck batter. If he is dumb enough to be suckered by you and slides dangerously or way past the plate and the ball comes in time to tag him, good on you.

If it is on time and on line, brace yourself and take up as much space as possible, but first CATCH AND SECURE THE DAMNED BALL. The hope was always that straight through you was the only path to the plate and they would slide directly into your forward leg, be stopped dead in their tracks and you would simply drop the tag on them. Or, they would come in à la Pete Rose on Ray Fosse. Fair enough, since only one of you had on protective gear and if you secured the ball, the runner was running into the tag. If you are a couple of feet up the line and making yourself large, they have to go so far out of the way to get around you that they have almost no chance of getting back to touch the plate. The idea of giving them a path is jaw-dropping to me.

I know I sound like the 2000 Year Old Man (I guess if that routine is a cultural touchstone for you then you are by definition ancient), but does anyone know when this new technique of offering a path the plate started? I understand the desire to avoid injuries to high priced players in the modern era, but since catchers are usually relatively big, mean and expendable, it seems to me incumbent upon the billion dollar position players like Pujols to avoid the collision. I cannot fathom a catcher (or anyone in baseball) ever being pissed about being taken out with a hard slide on a play at the plate. I don't care if there is a sliver, a slice or all things nice. Taking him down may mean dropping or missing the ball. WTF is the difference between that and the latitude a runner gets for disrupting the double play at second? Unfathomable.

The game has passed me by. Next thing you know they'll announce that rubbing spit and dirt into an injury has no medical value....