Chase Utley Owns the Mets

If you're going to be a tough guy, don't fail. If you're going to throw a baseball at another player to prove a point, hit them. This is really true if you're a staff ace type of arm who has a 99 mph fastball and pinpoint control. What i'm getting at is that if Noah Syndergaard and the Mets wanted to prove some kind of point about their manhood against Chase Utley on Saturday night, the least the Mets ace could have done is actually to hit the guy.

Of course, in typical Mets fashion, he failed. On a night they honored their 1986 team, Syndergaard only added to the lore of the Mets, pulling a Shawn Estes and missing his target as he threw at Utley. He got tossed from the game, Utley hit two homers, and the Dodgers beat the crap out of the Mets and sent most of the Citi Field crowd heading for  the LIE and GCP before the game ended. For all of us who hate the Mets, it was a sweet, sweet night. About the only thing that could have made it better would have been if "Crying Jordan" had come out of the "Big Apple" pop-up in centerfield after each Utley homer.

This is just the latest reminder to Mets fans of the obvious- Utley has owned you guys. He's second to only Ryan Howard amongst active players in homers against the Mets. Oh yeah, third is Jimmy Rollins. Obviously he had some good times at your expense back in 2007 and 2008, and he got the last laugh last night. All of that aside, I don't have any problem with Syndergaard trying to send a message to Utley for last year's NLDS slide if that's what he wants to do, but I would suggest in the future that when you try to send a message, you put that fastball squarely into the ribs. Instead what happens is Noah looks like a petty fool, maybe gets suspended (which would be truly awesome, given Utley never sitting a game for the Tejada slide), and has to watch from the clubhouse as Utley terrorizes their sold out crowd. This is certainly no way to stand up to the bully, unless of course part of your plan is to get battered in public.

Maybe the Mets Fans Can March on MLB- Utley is Rightly Cleared

Chase Utley broke Ruben Tejada's leg last October in Game Two of the NLDS between the Dodgers and Mets. He came in hard on a takeout slide at second base to break up a double play, and he clobbered Tejada. The Mets shortstop's season was over, and Utley played the remainder of the series while he appealed a two-game suspension handed down from Joe Torre. The LA Times explains the chain of events:

Utley barreled hard and late into Tejada, whose back was turned to the runner, while breaking up a double play in Game 2 of the National League division series.

In announcing the suspension for what an MLB statement called an “illegal slide,” chief baseball officer Joe Torre cited Utley for a “rolling block … away from the base.”

However, such a slide was not explicitly outlawed until Feb. 25, when MLB adopted a new rule to protect middle infielders on slides into second.

“I think at the time, he felt he needed to make a quick decision,” Utley said of Torre. “Obviously, in the playoffs, there’s a lot of attention brought to that, and he did what he felt he needed to do.

“I talked to Joe Torre at length on the phone, and he expressed to me that what happened in the playoffs, after looking at other slides over the course of the years, it was not much different.”

Of course, they do leave out a few steps in this- like the Mets carrying Tejada out to the field and acting like some real tragedy had befallen their shortstop, David Wright insinuating that Utley tried to hurt him, Joe Torre taking the cowardly road and appeasing the New York media with a suspension, and the ridiculous debate that came after.

The truth is that Torre was wrong to issue the suspension, and he has correctly admitted that now by lifting it. The truth is that Utley's slide was pretty rough, but not so far out of the normal to warrant action. The truth is that MLB eventually got to the right answer, lifting the suspension and instituting a new rule that makes clear they will suspend in the future. All's well that ends well.

Of course, not to Ruben Tejada. And David Wright is shooting his mouth off with the normal drivel too:

Wright noted that the rule changes were an acknowledgment by MLB that Utley had done wrong. “One hundred percent,” the Met captain said. “We were upset that the first thing he hit was a body part and not the ground. I’ve always been taught a slide occurs on the ground.”

Wright says MLB acknowledged that Utley was wrong- by not suspending him. Okay David. Okay.