A couple of old catchers weighed in on the drastic hit on Buster Posey last night.
"Very unfortunate," Oakland's Bob Geren said. "You hate to see anybody on any team get injured like that. He's a special player. I just wish him the best with his recovery. I never met him in my life, but he's a heck of a player and seems like a great kid."
The collision hit home with Geren, who said, "I've got a young catcher (Kurt Suzuki), and my two kids catch, So I know it's a dangerous position. You just do the best job you can mechaniclly to try to avoid injuries. It's part of the job. It's a tough position."
Asked about the biggest collision involving him, Geren recalled getting knocked down by Ken Caminiti in a game in San Diego.
"Nothing obviously like that," he said, referring to the Posey hit. "I had a bad neck for a while. A little whiplash. I tried to play through it and couldn't turn my head all the way to the pitcher. I dropped a nice oh-fer. Then again, I could've done that with a good neck."
Geren threw praise at Angels manager Mike Scioscia, calling him the "most amazing plate-blocking, collision-taking catcher of all time, in my mind."
Geren added Scioscia had "great technique and was a very tough guy."
Amid talk, some from Bruce Bochy, that MLB could alter the rules to prevent extreme home-plate collisions, Scioscia spoke of a code between runner and catcher about what's acceptable or what's not: "Ninety-nine percent of the time, it's the adrenaline of the runner knowing he can score a run and the catcher knowing he can stop a run that leads to these."
He added, "When something like this happens, it's unfortunate, but I don't know if there's enough there to rewrite the rulebook."
Scioscia recalled the most violent collsion in his career -- getting hit by Chili Davis.
"He hit me like a linebacker on a blitz," said Scioscia, recalling a separated shoulder -- not his but Davis'.
"I was down and woozy," he said. "It was a third out. I just wanted to make sure I got to the right dugout. I thought I rolled the ball to the mound. I guess it rolled toward the first-base coach's box."
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