Harold Reynolds Proposes Very Bad MLB Rule Change, Still Doesn't Know What 'Cylinder' Is
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Plays at home plate have been a point of contention for MLB analyst Harold Reynolds for some time now.
Three years ago, Reynolds proposed on MLB Network a special box of sorts for catchers to stand in as they waited for throws home. But on Monday night, he outdid himself.
Dismayed at seeing Yankees shortstop prospect Gleyber Torres suffer a season-ending elbow injury while sliding into home plate, Reynolds said it's time for MLB to change its rules regarding touching home plate.
"I'm going to start with the Torres injury, because this got me thinking," Reynolds said. "Why do we have so many guys having to reach back with the plate to touch it with their hand instead of sliding with their feet?"
That's a great question.
Reynolds proposed that, like football, MLB should award runners home plate if they merely break the plane of the plate. That is to say, the flat plate would extend to the sky, and any runner getting any part of his body over home plate would be deemed safe. This would, in theory, save players from having to strain their ankles to touch the ground or extend their arm and risk having a catcher fall on top.
This idea is insane.
But let Reynolds explain: "Imagine that was the goal line and he's got the football -- hey! We give it to him. Touchdown, run counts!"
Got it?
More from Reynolds: "This used to be your safety -- I could slide through the plate. Now we're so concerned about touching the plate that I'm saying, cross the plane like they do in football"
Considering the sport has been around for some 150 years and has always required players to touch the plate, it's a bit odd to suggest this is some new development. Alas.
While the proposal is bad in its own right (imagine players running by the side of the plate without sliding, reaching their hand out to perhaps get a finger over an imaginary plane above the plate, and having some replay judge in New York looking at a high home replay to try to determine if this imaginary contact took place), what's most amazing about Reynolds' soliloquy is that he still has no idea what a cylinder is.
This revelation came in that suggestion a few years ago, when he made his proposal for where catchers are allowed to stand. Despite the presence of what is commonly known as either a "box" or a "rectangle," Reynolds repeatedly referred to the shape as a "cylinder." But it was not a cylinder! See for yourself:
Evidently, Reynolds is familiar with the rule in basketball that the ball cannot be touched while it's in "the cylinder." But you see, there's a "cylinder" in basketball because it is the area that extends directly up from the rim ... which is a circle ... which therefore would create an imaginary cylinder. Often while watching basketball, you'll hear a commentator say "the ball was touched in the cylinder." That's because it was ... in a cylinder!
This is not complicated! Shapes!
Nevertheless, Reynolds said "cylinder" no fewer than three times when discussing the imaginary space hovering about the pentagon-shaped plate.
"I'm way above the plate ... but I've crossed the cylinder! Just like the goal line. Touchdown!"
No!
"So cross the cylinder, I'm not worried about trying to get my foot down here and breaking my ankle on the only flat surface on a baseball diamond."
Wrong!
HOST GREG AMSINGER: "I'm thinking of the poor souls that work in our instant replay headquarters in Manhattan going, 'It's already hard enough, Harold, to see whether or not he touched home plate."
REYNOLDS: "Yeah, so just cross the cylinder."
What?!
That's splendid.
This is a bad suggestion. Touching the base has always been a fundamental part of the sport. Introducing imaginary planes where a runner can just reach over a plate seems like a great way to overcomplicate a simple concept.
What's more, Reynolds used this example of Giancarlo Stanton sliding to prove that his rule change would make the game safer.
Real life:
Harold's world:
"Look at Stanton -- he would've been a foot past the bag! Oh, ridiculous!" Reynolds shouted. "But no, let's get the $300 million man to slide past home and throw your hand out there and maybe we'll hurt it again. All right? Makes no sense."
What this example overlooks is ... Stanton is allowed to slide through the plate right now. There is no rule on the books preventing him from doing so. There is, however, the small matter of the catcher having the baseball and attempting to put a tag down on Stanton:
The rule could create an imaginary "cylinder," it could require the catcher to yell "GOTCHA!" or it could require the umpire to perform a cartwheel before making his call. Yet no matter what the rule might say, Stanton is going to be out. Unless Reynolds wants to ban tags?
Reynolds also used this slide by Didi Gregorius to make his point, saying the Yankees shortstop would have been safe if the revolutionary idea was in place:
But, well, Harold apparently wasn't interested in actually seeing the catcher tagging Gregorius' left hand:
The proposed rule "change" doesn't really "change" anything.
But that's beside the point. Someone needs to get that man a shape sorter -- perhaps a cylindrical one? -- before he goes on TV to share another idea.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
