Last night in a 12-inning thriller at AT&T Park in San Francisco, the Marlins trumped the Giants, 7-6. But there was no shaving cream pie laid out for the Fish after the game.
In the top of the 12th, Scott Cousins of the Marlins was rounding third base heading into home as the go-ahead run. The throw beat him, but his collision with Giants catcher Buster Posey jostled the ball loose--and also a bone in Posey's left leg.
Almost down to his knees, once the collision came in, Posey was held from flipping backwards because his foot was caught of the ground as all of his weight fell back, snapping a bone around his shin/ankle area. He suffered a broken bone, and will most likely miss the remainder of the season.
The Twins are sans starting catcher Joe Mauer, and their record this season sits at a dismal 16-32. What will happen to the Giants without their former Rookie of the Year, World Series winning catcher for the remainder of 2011?
The other part to this story is Posey's agent, Jeff Berry has the ball rolling on opening up communication with MLB On-Field Operations leader Joe Torre on home-plate collisions.
From a fan standpoint, if you get rid of home plate collisions, that takes away so much from the game. Baseball is the least physical game of the major sports, and stripping it entirely of any contact would be disastrous. I can understand the argument, because according to the Sports Science clip they showed on the 5:00 Sportscenter, a runner charing home plate can impact with roughly 3,000 pounds of force.
Either way, for the Giants to stay afloat, it is going to take a lot. Losing an offensive leader, nevermind a catcher, is going to be tough. The Giants are up 2.5 games in their division, and if they want to hold onto that lead, they will have to play smarter baseball, and look for those players who are ready to step up and lead the charge.
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