The Rangers botched the Hamilton play
Written by Patrick Delaney, Thursday April 14 2011
A buddy of mine emailed me today with the three questions below that came out of last night's Josh Hamilton slide into home. Hamilton broke his arm on the head first slide * and is said to be out at least eight weeks; this on top of calling his third base coach "stupid" for sending him on the play. Let the games begin...
A) Does the runner have to run if the 3b coach says "go” even if the play is right in front them?
Short answer “yes.” Long answer “no….with a ‘but’.” There are several factors at play here. One of the base coach’s primary functions – particularly the third base coach -- is to be able to see the progress of the play, and then tell the runner what’s best for them based on the development of the play and throw. In this case, the play was happening in front of both the Texas third base coach, Dave Anderson, and Hamilton. Not only were they both in position to judge the opportunity, but it was only the first inning of the game. On the surface that’s two strikes against Anderson – one for the fact that Hamilton could somewhat accurately judge for himself whether or not he could make it home, and two, for the fact that this wasn’t a late-inning, dire situation for the Rangers (and a distant third…it’s the first freakin’ month of the season and the Rangers have been playing phenomenal baseball – in no small part to Hamilton’s defense in the outfield).
So back to the long answer – and this gets back to the function of the third base coach on 99% of plays where they decide whether or not to send a runner. This wasn’t a situation where the ball was in the gap and Hamilton had to motor around third base - his only knowledge of the developing play coming from either a stop sign by Anderson telling him to put on the brakes or a windmill by Anderson telling him to book it home. In this case, Hamilton was perfectly capable of knowing whether or not the tag up and subsequent “go for broke” move to home was worth the gamble. But because he is a team player…because he is a good employee…he listened to the instruction of his coach and he went for broke.
The other instance where this can be found is when there is a runner on third and the pitch gets away from the catcher. In that case, I believe that the runner has much more freedom to decide on their own whether or not breaking for the plate is a smart move. If you want to equate the Hamilton situation to this, then the argument can be made that Hamilton should NOT have listened to the third base coach. But somehow, because of the stink being made nationally regarding the play (which is what prompted my friend to email me these questions), I think that because this was a batted ball (albeit a foul one, not terribly far from home plate), and because Detroit did a relatively poor job of covering home plate on the pop up, people automatically think that Anderson - as the base coach - should have final authority.
Let’s say Hamilton didn’t listen to Anderson, stayed at third base, never came home during the inning, and the Rangers would have lost by one. Don’t you think Anderson would have made a point to tell Manager Ron Washington that Hamilton was being insubordinate and should listen to his coaches? Do you think the media would have given as much attention to the situation in questioning Hamilton once the news broke that the third base coach actually had sent him and he disobeyed? In this respect, Hamilton is damned if he did, and damned if he didn’t. But he’s REALLY damned now, because he broke his arm and is out eight weeks.
The answer to the second question is easy. What are your thoughts on Hamilton calling out the third base coach (Anderson) by saying it was a “stupid” play? My thoughts are this – in an age when locker room and organizational privacy is being constantly minimized – I think Hamilton should have done his best to keep his thoughts to himself, his teammates, and if necessary, expressed them to his manager. Absolutely nothing can be gained by airing his dirty laundry to the press – as evidenced by the headlines that summarized his “apology” to Anderson for calling him stupid. Hey, Josh – you were out, and you broke your freakin’ arm …of COURSE you thought it was a stupid play. It took you out of the lineup for at least two months! You don’t have to go blabbing it to the media.
Even with all of that being said...I actually thought it turned out to be a really close play. A LOT had to go right for the Tigers for Hamilton to be tagged out. 1) Someone had to hustle their ass to the plate. The first baseman obviously wasn’t getting there in time; so the catcher had to start running back without the ball. 2) Then, the catcher had to turn in mid-run and 3) Receive a toss from the pitcher; 4) Turn back around; and 5) Lunge/dive forward to tag out Hamilton, who was doing his best to dive head-first under the tag at the inner portion of the baseline. Which brings us to question three: What are your thoughts on sliding head first into a base? And my thoughts are simple: You can do it as much as you want at second, third, and home; and you can only do it on rare occasions going into first base. It is much more understandable to slide head first into second, third, or home because in the majority of those situations, it’s not a force out. You’re stealing a base or trying to take an extra base - and by getting as close as you can to the ground, you're making it more difficult for the opposing player to tag you. And if you’re Josh Hamilton, and you’re something like 6’4” and 240 pounds, you’re going to get much lower to the ground by sliding in on your stomach than you are sliding on your thigh with your torso sticking up in the air. To quote Ron Burgundy, “It’s science.” The only person who is allowed to consistently slide into first base is Roberto Alomar, because I feel like I saw him do that successfully more times than anyone in history and he single-handedly inspired players like Brian Roberts to continuously do the same thing (at the expense of ruining his already-fragile back and neck…in a spring training game no less…………….deep breaths…). So regardless – sliding head first into a base other than first is more than encouraged by me. No issues here.
But the real crux of the Josh Hamilton dilemma is the unintended consequences of his broken arm. To help clarify where I’m going with this, let’s do a very high-level re-cap of Hamilton’s career:
-- Extraordinarily talented kid gets drafted and proceeds to piss his early career away on heroin, booze, women, forearm flame tattoos, and all kinds of other non-career-lengthening activities.
-- Was one time found behind a dumpster during spring training after an all night bender.
-- The Rangers currently have on staff someone who travels with the team and is with Hamilton almost 24/7 on the road. His purpose: to make sure Hamilton doesn’t do so much as sit with the other players at dinner in the event that he be inadvertently lured into drinking or going out with team members after the game (which could conceivably lead him to wind up in a crack house until 10 the next morning).
-- When the Rangers won the pennant last year, Hamilton and straight-edge pitcher C.J. Wilson had their own celebration in the clubhouse with ginger ale; again - so Hamilton wouldn’t fall off the wagon, and because Wilson swears off drugs, booze, and carousing with women. God bless ‘em. Not really.
In case you’re still in the dark about where I’m going with this (and fact of the matter is, you are), what the hell are the Rangers going to do now that Hamilton has a broken arm? Did third base coach Anderson even think, “You know, if I send him home on this play and he breaks his arm, is he allowed to get painkillers from the doctors – seeing how he’s a recovering drug addict and all? Man, that would really suck. I mean, if it’s a compound fracture and he has to spend a few nights in the hospital, 1) is he allowed to use the morphine drip “button” that most patients who require surgery get to use every 10 minutes to dull the pain, and 2) if his recovery program won't let him, does the guy we pay to keep an eye on Hamilton on the road 24/7 get to push the morphine button and/or determine the amount of painkillers for him? And if that guy is in the room with Hamilton, does Hamilton end up resenting him for not pushing the button with more frequency?" You see, what seems like a harmless broken arm for your average player becomes a moral nightmare for someone who goes Charlie Sheen** when he gets some booze and drugs in him.
When you put it into such serious context as that, you can see how the decision to send him becomes more and more ludicrous; and yet in some sick twist of irony, Hamilton’s decision to listen to authority and abide by a coach's instruction (something he didn’t do as a drug addict earlier in his career) has added a complicated layer to what was a promising season for Texas.
Personally, I hope that Hamilton makes a speedy and full recovery. His story is one of the best in recent MLB memory; and a story that America loves to fall in love with: one of such initial promise, followed by a horrendous fall from grace, and ending with such sweet redemption.
Now, if only Tiger had won the Masters……
* On a side note - am I the only person in the world who can't STAND the fact that every single non-youtube video you attempt to watch online these days is preceded by a freakin' commercial??? In trying to find a link to the video footage of Hamilton's slide, anywhere I went other than youtube (cnn, si.com, espn.com, mlb.com) has a commercial*** at the beginning. I mean, I hop on the information superhighway to avoid watching commercials.
** I introduce you to the verb "Charlie Sheen" - v. to go completely bat-sh*t crazy and stay up for days straight at the first mention of a drug-infused porn party; to cast aside a lucrative contract, fame, fortune, and respect amongst your peers because you have an insatiable appetite for hard living and harder drugs.
*** I can say I honestly didn't mind watching the trailer for Scream 4. For some reason, I've seen every Scream movie in the theater, and I don't plan to stop now. There's something about that series of movies that keeps bringing me back. Maybe it's Wes Craven's delightful juggling act of horror, thriller, gore, and wry humor that appeals to me. And despite me having nightmares of the stupid Scream ghost guy from time to time (yes, it's true, I have nightmares of that guy...along with Freddy, Jason, Darth Vader, the Emperor, and the occasional bear, shark, and dinosaur - you wouldn't believe the amount of "I'm trapped in Jurrasic Park" dreams I have each year). I have ridiculously vivid dreams. Therapy is looming.
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