re: Pirates Kang out for year; Does MLB need to revisit takeout slide?

quote:

---

That angle from behind isn't straight on and probably makes it looks worse than it really is...and baseball purist guy will probably say I'm an idiot...but, I hate that play right there. I think the guy's legs should have to be more on a line with the base path. I can see if you're rounding the bases how you have to come from that angle, but not a slide. The entire purpose of that play is to plow the guy, which is asking for injuries like this.

---

This is a really good post.

If you start making players slide directly to the bag, that opens up a lot of doors...what about slides at home? Slides to second or third on throws from the outfield? Those usually aren't directly to the bag but rather around tags.

I'm a big Cubs fan and even though Coghlan isn't intending to injure Kang and he's well within the rules to slide like this, the potential is there for both players to get injured. Let's not lose sight of that fact as well. The Pirates lost a great player for the rest of the year, but so could the Cubs.

I'll admit that if the player sliding like that was wearing any other uniform, I'd definitely feel worse for the Pirates. I do like Kang, though, and it's a real shame.

To Coghlan's credit, he did send a note to Kang in the hospital wishing him well and Kang also conceded that Coghlan didn't do anything malicious.

Also, Kang could have jumped over Coghlan like a lot of middle infielders do.