Neighborhood play

[OttoC]

First of all, it is not a written rule and if players ran the route that their slide takes, they would be called out for interference. You have players who are reaching out with their arm for the base while their feet are some 7-8 feet out of the base path trying to prevent the fielder from turning a double play. You see slide after slide in which the runner goes way wide of the bag or far beyond it. It's not an attempt to avoid a tag; it's an attempt to prevent the fielder from completing a play and why that is not called interference, I have no idea. In high school and college baseball, the runner is required to slide straight into the bag. Why not in professional ball?

 

[Fred in Lynn]

Arrogance coupled with a lack of appreciation for the reasons rules of law work? I think the real reason it persists has more to do with Newton's first law: the status quo isn't hurting anyone. All that's required to scrutinize the policy of enforcement is a well-timed controversy or even better, baseball's version of the Denny Pratt tragedy (we're left to presume Denny died). A fielder dying from being impaled on a spike would qualify as an outside force in Isaac's eyes.

 

[Lowrielicious]

Arrogance coupled with a lack of appreciation for the reasons rules of law work? I think the real reason it persists has more to do with Newton's first law: the status quo isn't hurting anyone. All that's required to scrutinize the policy of enforcement is a well-timed controversy or even better, baseball's version of the Denny Pratt tragedy (we're left to presume Denny died). A fielder dying from being impaled on a spike would qualify as an outside force in Isaac's eyes.

Had Scutaro ended up with a compound fracture of the leg on national television after Hollidays takeout slide in the NLCS 2012 we might have seen some action on this.
 
How he didn't, and how he actually managed to play on afterwards is something of a miracle.