Paul Articulates - Diving headfirst into uncertainty

In last night's controversial ending, Pete Alonso dove headfirst into home plate, attempting to score on a Jeff McNeil sacrifice fly to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth inning.  He was unsuccessful, in a way, and the Mets lost the game.

At the same time, he was successful in the perspective that he left the game intact.  The success of the team this year depends on having their primary stars healthy, yet in the span of two days we say Francisco Lindor and then Pete Alonso dive headfirst into home plate and make full contact with a well-armored catcher.

If you are a speedy base stealer in today's MLB game, you are probably trained that the fastest way to get to a bag is to transfer your forward running momentum into a forward head-first dive, stretching your fingertips (now an elongated sliding mitt) towards the base.  That probably saves milliseconds over the old tradition of a foot-first slide.

In a home plate attempt, the foot-first approach is much safer because a collision with a beefy, well-armored catcher who is rooted at the plate does not often end well if you offer your hand, arm, and shoulder as the first line of defense.

I understand that the game has changed since the days of Pete Rose barreling over Ray Fosse.  Many rule changes have completely eliminated the prospects of a runner lowering a shoulder into a catcher who is braced in front of the plate.  But the catcher is still a solid guy with protective pads that is leaning into a tag, so Newton's laws apply a firm penalty to those who impose a force with a fragile part of their body exposed.

In a 162-game season there are many opportunities for players to be injured, and inevitably everyone gets banged up.  But the Mets' coaching staff has to firmly impose some guidance upon the players to avoid putting themselves into high probability of injury situations like a head first dive into home plate.  It's just common sense.