Chase Utley barreled into Ruben Tejada in the 2015 National League Division Series, breaking the New York Mets second baseman’s leg. It was a particularly vicious slide and led to a Major League Baseball rule change attempting to legislate such contact out of the game.
Shortly after, Utley attempted to apologize to the young player. He did so, as most guys in their late-30s do, through a text message to a totally different person named David Wright.
Tejada, who has struggled to stay in the bigs since the incident, was called up to the Mets to fill in for the injured Jeff McNeil this week. During an interview with reporters, he revealed that Utley never followed up with an actual human-to-human interaction about what happened.
Now, there are no hard-and-fast rules for when you snap a guy’s leg. But one would think that a personal touch would be appreciated. It seems like a small gesture of contrition that could go a long way.
Former MLBer Preston Wilson handled things a much different way when Hall of Famer Craig Biggio was lost for the year after a slide back in 2000.
Different strokes for different folks.
