MLB working to clarify home plate collision rule

With the playoffs fast approaching and rampant confusion among players and managers over the home-plate collision rule enacted this year, the commissioner’s office and the players’ union are working to clarify the rule so that it does not become an issue in the postseason.

In the first season of widespread use of instant replay -- one in which over 500 calls have been overturned with minimal fuss -- club personnel worry that a playoff game could be decided when a runner clearly beaten to the plate by a throw is called safe on a disputed or unclear interpretation of the new rule.

Joe Torre, baseball’s ranking executive for on-field matters, said he has discussed the matter with Tony Clark, the executive director of the players’ union, and that clarifications to the rule should be announced soon.

“Any time something other than baseball decides the game, I’m not a big fan of that,” Torre said during a recent visit to Los Angeles. “I’m not about to stand here and say, ‘We’re going to have to live with it.’ ”

Torre said the rule has succeeded in its primary objective -- to protect catchers from injuries in collisions at home plate. In general, the rule urges runners to slide into home plate and catchers to provide runners with a lane to get there.

Here is how the rule reads: “A runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate). If, in the judgment of the umpire, a runner attempting to score initiates contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate) in such a manner, the umpire shall declare the runner out (even if the player covering home plate loses possession of the ball). In such circumstances, the umpire shall call the ball dead, and all other baserunners shall return to the last base touched at the time of the collision.”

The rule was adopted as a one-year experiment. The commissioner’s office and the union would need to agree to extend the rule beyond this season.

Torre said the rule will not be rescinded. Clark, the union chief, said the players have expressed a variety of concerns, with more players wanting to clarify the rule than abandon it.

“We’ve heard everything,” Clark said. “We’ve heard less of ‘scrap it.’

“The main focus of the rule was to eliminate the runner deviating and hitting a catcher who was not blocking the plate. If we can eliminate those types of collisions, the rule will have accomplished what we want it to accomplish.”