Someone Please Save Buster Olney from Himself
My general distaste for all-things Buster Olney is about as well known as LeBron James is tirelessly pompous.
THAT’S A WHOLE LOT!!!
So after Buster Posey’s devastating injury suffered during a home plate collision with Florida Marlin Scott Cousins Thursday night, I shouldn’t have been so surprised that Olney would come out with some stupidly fandangled approach to squash any potential collision-based injuries.
Ban home plate collisions? What are you talking about, Buster? It was a freak accident. Ban home plate collisions!?!
Why don’t we ban pitching inside too!?!
And we should ban breaking up the double play on a hard slide into second!?!
How about we ban walk-off celebrations and ban beer in the grandstands, JUST FOR FUN!?!
EFF THE WORLD! YOU’RE ON A ROLL, BUSTER!
No one likes to see people get hurt. No one. But guess what: it happens. People get hurt playing baseball all the time. Sometimes they get seriously hurt. It sucks. There’s no denying it.
But that still doesn’t make it okay to go off and make drastic rule changes to the game, just because you and your worldwide leader in smut want blog traffic.
Hate me ‘cuz it ain’t sugarcoated, just don’t hate me ‘cuz I’m right.
Peace,
Jeff
PS. Things might be different had you not “broken” that story on Ryan Howard for Pujols a while back. You lost all respect from me — and many other knowledgeable baseball folk, I imagine — after that.
Red State Blue State 
I wouldn’t ban home plate collisions, but there are times when you see a player barrel into the catcher and get called out when a good slide to the back of the plate might make him safe. It has sort of become a macho thing instead of a being safe thing.
That might be true, but still, it doesn’t warrant a retooling of the rules. Dudes just gotta use their brains more 😉
–Jeff
Cousins hit on Posey wasn’t dirty at all, though. In my opinion, neither was Rose’s on Ray Fosse in the 70 ASG.
http://pittpeas.mlblogs.com
He has to stick up for his namesake. The only other Busters are dogs (my dog’s name is Buster Timothy Cain).
I have a good spoof to Scott Cousins ala Cee Lo Green appropriately titled “Fu%k You, Scott Cousins” and some awesome diary entries from my friends.
Thanks for checking out the site Jeff, appreciate it.
-Shaun
http://The-Three-Bs.com
Matt — You’ll get no argument out of me.
Shaun — An instant HIT, I’m sure!
–Jeff
I agree with you, Jeff. It’s awful to read about an injury like that, but freak stuff happens. You have to accept that if you decide to be a catcher!
Gotta love how this is getting more press than Santana’s incident last season. Sh*t happens. But it’s a part of the game. I just hope MLB doesn’t turn into the NFL and start fining plays for hits like that. Now THAT would be ridiculous.
-Avi M
2131 and Beyond: The games. The news. The experiences. The Orioles.
Totally agree. I just don’t really agree with the reaction that has come about because of this. I’m not amazed by the reaction because this is type of reaction happens all the time. We overreact to a single extreme event that influences our decision on a matter that for the most part would have been insignificant otherwise. I don’t see a need for a rule change and the reason for the change sure shouldn’t be because a one star player was injured one time.
http://chrisross91.wordpress.com/2011/05/27/buster-posey-silliness/
I couldn’t agree more. It was a clean hit, a fairly standard play and a really unfortunate freak outcome. No more than that. I was surprised and saddened to hear that Posey has actually joined the change the rules crowd and suggested the player’s association should get involved.
— Kristen
Jane — Exactly! Comes with the territory. Own it!
Avi — They’d be crazy to do so, in my opinion.
Chris — It’s Buster Olney’s fault.
Kristen — Yeah, that makes me not admire him so much. Johanna will be crushed to hear that… Posey is his boyfriend.
–Jeff