Cardinals vs. Giants: Matt Holliday's takeout slide equally terrifying as an animated GIF

Matt Holliday gave the 2012 NLCS its required dose of controversy and narrative early in Game 2, using the Platonic ideal takeout slide to keep the St. Louis Cardinals in a first inning rally that was ultimately scoreless. It's easy to forget this, but Matt Holliday is a very large man—he's listed at six-four, 235 pounds, and if anything that seems a little low. Marco Scutaro is listed at five-ten, which might be a little generous. Here's an animated GIF, because watching video just isn't violent enough.

I'm with Rob Neyer at Baseball Nation—this is probably a legal move that Holliday makes, but I'd rather it weren't legal. Takeout slides at second aren't quite as universally nasty as the Bill Goldberg moves people make at home plate, but when they're this focused on obliterating the guy who's throwing they seem something apart from baseball.

In any case, Marco Scutaro is still alive and Matt Holliday will probably take a beanball sometime in the near future. And that's how baseball chooses to regulate takeout slides for now. Through two innings, the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants are tied at one.