Buster Posey's season-ending injury in a collision at the plate is one of the saddest stories of the 2011 baseball season, and Mike Matheny—in his capacity as San Francisco Giants alum and player whose career was ended by concussions, not St. Louis Cardinals alum and Tony La Russa's muse—is, predictably, speaking out against the play that caused it, calling it unnecessary and suggesting that it wouldn't have happened if the baserunner weren't "hunting."
↵But I'm a little surprised by what Matheny proposes in lieu of changing the rules—or enforcing the ones that already exist—to wipe out these occasional, dangerous collisions at the plate. He's not in favor of changing the rules, but says as a catcher that "you just put a mark in the column that that kid took a run at a catcher. To me as a catcher I know the next time I get the ball I'm going to stick it to him."
↵This is exactly the wrong idea! Matheny proposes that the right way to deal with contact at home plate is to cause more contact at home plate, which should somehow end the problem of too much contact at home plate. I understand the reluctance to make a rule change, but if his alternate solution is to create another unwritten rulebook filled with players' names we're better off with the status quo.