Why is Yasiel Puig allowed to flip bat when Jose Bautista wasn’t?

Los Angeles Dodgers' Yasiel Puig tosses his bat during the fourth inning of Game 2 of baseball's National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs in Los Angeles, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017. (Matt Slocum/AP)

Hey, I like raging against baseball authority at times, too, just as Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon did on Saturday when the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Charlie Culberson was credited with a run despite never touching home plate because Cubs catcher Willson Contreras was ruled to have not given him a clear path to the plate.

Except in this case Maddon was wrong.

The play in question happened in the seventh inning when Culberson was originally called out at the plate on a throw to Contreras from Kyle Schwarber, off a Justin Turner single. But Dodgers manager Dave Roberts requested video review and the call was overturned, allowing the fifth run to score in a 5-2 win and leading to Maddon’s ejection.

Baseball’s rules on plays like this have been clear since the start of the 2014 major-league season, three years after Scott Cousins of the Miami Marlins blew up San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey at home plate. Since then, catchers have been taught to not block the pathway of the runner to the plate, unless they’re in possession of the ball or are in the act of receiving the throw. If they do, the runner is ruled safe.

Maddon’s point of contention was two-fold: that the rule sucks – he essentially said later it was the result of MLB nanny-state interventionism, equating it to a soda tax in the city of Chicago, which … whatever – and that Schwarber’s throw pulled Contreras into the pathway of Culberson.

Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon, left, argues a call at the plate with umpire Mike Winters, during the seventh inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of baseball’s National League Championship Series in Los Angeles, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017. (Matt Slocum/AP)

The video review did not support his claim.

“I saw a great baseball play,” Maddon said in his post-game news conference. So, too, did former and current players both on social media and as TV analysts. And know what? Before Posey’s leg exploded, it would have been a great baseball play, just as hits that are no longer allowed in hockey and football used to be “great” plays. Momentum shifters, all that good stuff. But the rules are different, now – and it’s rich hearing advocates of video replay complaining that the use of replay has led to “absolutism.”

They want it both ways; get the call right but allow some room for grey areas which is, of course, exactly what replay is supposed to eliminate. Catchers have adapted; they catch the ball in front of the plate, now, and sweep tag. Runners have adapted, too; they slide in head first or more precisely hand-first now at both home plate and second base, the latter the result of rules changes regarding take-out slides at second base.

Given what we know about head trauma, I’m OK with the home plate rule. I’d rather spend my time debating something than waiting for players to be carted off the field with concussions. To my way of thinking, it’s a helluva selling point for parents who don’t want their kids to spend the final years of their lives drinking dinner through straws, as is the case with some other sports.

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FLIP FLAP

So let’s get this straight: Jose Bautista crushes a home run in the deciding game of a post-season series, flips his bat … then spends the next two seasons dealing with the ramifications. Yasiel Puig flips his bat after a double in Saturday’s first game of the NLCS, points to centre and effectively calls his shot, flexes and prances around second base … and nothing? Puig homers later in the game, too … and in all the post-game interviews? Crickets.

First: I’d say there’s a pretty good chance that Joe Maddon and the Cubs are a classier, more professional outfit than wormy Jeff Banister, Rougned Odor and the Texas Rangers. Second: Puig’s been doing stuff like this in one of the game’s biggest markets ever since he broke into the majors. I mean, this is entirely within character for a guy whose loopy behaviour has in the past angered his teammates and his own manager as much as opponents. Third: Maybe the Cubs wait until they get home to exact revenge. Or wait until the regular season, when the stakes aren’t quite as high.

Perhaps it’s a positive sign. Maybe it means Bautista’s article in The Players Tribune making the case that Latino players come from a baseball culture that embraces the joyfulness of accomplishment and are subject to a double-standard has resonated with people throughout the game, which is good. Except I can’t give people that much credit. Sorry. Instead, I wonder if baseball’s OK with adherence to some sort of subtle caricature or unfortunate stereotype, but less comfy with somebody who challenges convention. I wonder if it’s OK with “flair” and less at home with, say, a detached arrogance because, let’s face it, Puig’s bearing is not the same as Bautista’s.

Whatever. If nothing else, it was a reminder that two years to the day of a special moment we’ll always have, a reminder of how singular it was: the player involved, the opponent, the atmosphere – crowd charged up after that bizarre play involving Russ Martin’s throw to the mound that hit the knob of Shin Soo-Choo’s bat, resulting in a run scoring and beer cans raining down. My goodness. A true moment in time.

Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig licks his bat during the fourth inning of Game 2 of baseball’s National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs in Los Angeles, Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017. (Matt Slocum/AP)

QUIBBLES AND BITS

• There are still some outposts that view NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s wholly appropriate decision to pull out of the 2018 Winter Olympics in a market with no chance of ever becoming interested in hockey as some sort of impediment to the “growth of the game,” whatever that is and however it’s measured. It’s nonsense, of course, as is the misguided fealty of NHL players to an idea that doesn’t enhance their own revenues. What isn’t nonsense, and indeed deserves wide-spread praise, is the idea first reported on Saturday by our Chris Johnston that the NHL and NHLPA has discussed deep-sixing the All-Star Game in favour of some type of international event. Johnston also reported that the NHL has hired Harvard-trained Jaka Lednik to oversee the league’s European growth strategy. Makes sense. Europe, particularly Germany, has long been underserved as a consumer market. You want to focus on a realistic plan for growing the game? Start there, not South Korea for pete’s sake.

• Not to be missed ever is a chance to mention the names of the late Tim Horton and Carl Brewer. When the Boston Bruins’ Zdeno Chara had a goal and two assists in Saturday’s 6-2 thumping of the Arizona Coyotes, he became the fifth defenceman aged 40 or older to collect at least three points in a regular-season game, joining Nicklas Lidstrom (five times); Horton (twice) and Brewer and Rob Blake.

• Nine days after he became general manager of the Montreal Expos on July 5, 1988, David Dombrowski acquired outfielder Dave Martinez from the Chicago Cubs in return for Mitch Webster. Martinez played 1,919 Major League games and is now bench coach for Joe Maddon – joined at the hip since their time together with the Tampa Bay Rays. Martinez should be at the top of anybody’s managerial wish list and I wonder if the combination of Martinez and pitching coach Jim Hickey – the highly-regarded former coach of the Rays who is credited with turning that organization into a model of pitching development – might be too much for Dombrowski to overlook in his search for a replacement for John Farrell. I bet David Price would be OK with it. He seems to run things there.

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THE ENDGAME

Here’s a happy thought for AL teams: Justin Verlander is under contract for two more years with the Houston Astros – maybe three depending on a vesting with the option that guarantees a 2020 deal if he finishes within the top five of 2019 Cy Young voting – and he has more weapons at his disposal than at any other time in his career, certainly more than he had with the stodgy Detroit Tigers. As detailed by Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated, Verlander has dived whole-heartedly into the treasure trove of analysis used by the Astros, among the most technologically-advanced organizations in the majors. Verducci notes that among the resources Verlander has glommed into is a high-speed camera that focuses on the pitcher’s hand when a pitch is delivered. It’s changed the way he tilts his hand on his slider, as one of the remarkable numbers out of Verlander’s dominant Game 2 performance on Saturday was the fact he threw 40 sliders, the most he’d ever thrown in a game. Thirty-one of them were strikes. If you’re wondering, Verlander and Dallas Keuchel — who will be eligible for free agency after next season — are the first pair of MLB teammates to win and strikeout at least 10 batters in the first two games of a post-season series. Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax of the 1965 Dodgers are the only other teammates to strike out 10 or more in two straight games in any post-season series.

Jeff Blair hosts The Jeff Blair Show from 9 a.m. and noon ET on Sportsnet 590 The Fan

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