The Chase Utley aftermath

We all saw it and I believe that the majority of us will agree that Chase Utley was out of line when he did what he did in that bottom LA 7th. The Dodgers were down a run and they looked dead in the water, they were a few innings away from what looked like another lost to the Mets, they were staring at a 2-0 deficit and getting ready to face Matt Harvey in NY.

Then with a runner on and 1 out up came our villian Chase Utley to the plate to pinch hit, he had delivered a base hit that sent Noah Syndergaard to the showers as the Dodgers had a 1st and 3rd situation and new life. In relief came Bartolo Colon to face Howie Kendricks with the game in the balance and on a 2-2 pitch Kendrick's lined a one hopper up the middle that was snagged by Daniel Murphy who then flipped to Rueben Tejada who was trying to complete an inning ending double play, but Murphy's toss put Rueben Tejada in a bad position and that's when he got blindsided by Chase Utley who instead of sliding to take him out of the DP tackled him. The game was now tied with 2 outs, or we thought so.

The damage was done and it was a brand new game, Tejada was lying on the ground and what followed was multiple replys, it was shown like 100 times and the more I saw it the more it got me mad. Chase Utley had started his slide when he was on top of 2nd base, the reply also showed Utley did not touch the bag. His intentions were so reckless he nearly gave himself a concussion when he took a knee from Tejada to the head. After several minutes had pass waiting for Rueben to get up out came the stretcher and Rueben Tejada's season was now over.

Chase Utley is known for being a hard nose, old school type player, he is also known to have a rep for being somewhat of a dirty player. I don't really blame Chase Utley because he did what we all expect him to do in that situation and go in hard to break up the DP, the problem here was that Chase Utley went about it like a drunk driver. It was reckless!

When you review the play you could see Chase Utley simply dust himself off after the collision and quickly get off the field and head back to the dugout, he showed no remorse, he had accomplished what he had intended to do and I'm not saying he wanted to injured Tejada.

As a fan of the Mets I got mad but I understood, what really got me going was what happened next, that's when Don Mattingly asked to review the play and moments later the umps come out and call Utley safe. When the Mets wanted to counter saying that Utley had miss the bag to begin with they were denied the opportunity to do so.

6 umpires in the game and all of them where incompetent, on top of that there was that guy in NY hiding in some room who made the official call. No one had any cojones to over rule or meet half way.

I am mad at MLB who allowed Chase Utley to get away with this and then award him on top of that. It was a WTF moment. I am mad at Joe Torre and that other guy who both were going back and forth with each others not really knowing the rules and how to explain themselves.

It is sad that MLB who had implemented the instant reply rule with the intent on getting things right got it all wrong. Whatever happened to the neighborhood play that use to protect the middle infielder? The Mets would had been better off with the old rules.

After the game I wanted to watch what everybody had to say from TBS to the Mets SNY station. I wanted to see who was going to defend this, on live TV there was the former SS Cal Ripken Jr defending Chase Utley, Cal was playing the corporate guy but seconds later Ron Darling had to step in and callout Cal telling him we'll agree to disagree here.

on SNY Nelson Figueroa, Dan Duquette and Keith Hernandez were all livid, they weren't trying to sugar coat it and each of them had different points that backed up their argument. .

On TBS Pedro Martinez was being the Dominican Charles Barkley, Pedro was dumbfounded of Utley's action saying he thought the intentions looked bad. Former manager Dusty Baker chimed in saying he could see both sides, the Dodgers wanted to prevent a DP but the Mets should be angry because that was a dirty slide.

As you would had expected the Mets players were fuming, David Wright always calm but visibly upset, Kelly Johnson looked like he wanted a piece of Utley, Daniel Murphy and Michael Cuddyer went further calling Utley a known dirty player and that the slide was a tackle.

Not for nothing but what if this happened at Citi Field? would the outcome had been the same? Better yet can you imagine if this happened to the Yankees? to Derek Jeter? I have a hard time accepting the same outcome.

Chase Utley is now public enemy #1 and on Monday it will be on! The good thing for him is that MLB did him another favor by keeping him out of NY for the next 2 games.

The Stage is now set and Matt Harvey is the perfect guy to take the ball on a night where tempers will be hot. It should be a ruckus Citi Field as they get ready for their 1st home playoff game since 2006. Hopefully for the Mets and their fans this will be a battle cry for the rest of the series.

Chase Utley took it back to1977, take a look at this playoff game between the KC and the Yankees where Hal McRae goes old school on Willie Randolph.

Here is former Met Alex Cora calling it like it is.

And here it Utley doing it to Tejada in 2010, we don't forget.