ASS News » both sides said was a one-year experiment

NEW YORK -- Rather than ban home plate collisions outright, Major League Baseball and its players adopted a rule limiting them this season. In what both sides said was a one-year experiment, the rule allows collisions if the catcher has the ball and is blocking the runners direct path to home plate, and if the catcher goes into the basepath to field a throw to the plate. "Its not a radical departure from what it had been," Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon said. The new rule, 7.13, states "a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate)." A runner violating the rule shall be declared out, even if the fielder drops the ball. "Its good, I think it takes away the malicious intent behind the play at the plate," Texas Rangers catcher J.P. Arencibia said. "Obviously the runner doesnt always have to slide, and the catcher still has the ability to block the plate once he has the ball in hand." Along with the rule, the sides agreed to a pair of comments umpires use for interpretation. The first comment says "the failure by the runner to make an effort to touch the plate, the runners lowering of the shoulder, or the runners pushing through with his hands, elbows or arms, would support a determination that the runner deviated from the pathway in order to initiate contact with the catcher in violation." The comment says players who slide appropriately are not in violation of the rule. The second comment says that "unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score." The runner shall be declared safe if the catcher violates that provision. In addition, it is not a violation "if the catcher blocks the pathway of the runner in order to field a throw, and the umpire determines that the catcher could not have fielded the ball without blocking the pathway of the runner and that contact with the runner was unavoidable." "There are some things that often times can make the water a little muddy," union head Tony Clark said after meeting with the New York Yankees. "Over the course of the off-season, the concern was protecting players, but trying to draw up something that not only made sense on paper, but also was going to make sense to the players that were playing on the field." The umpire crew chief can use the new video-review system to determine whether the rule was violated. "It stops guys just going out of their way just to try to dislodge the baseball when they (catchers) have the plate," Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington said. Debate over plate collisions has intensified since May 2011, when San Franciscos Buster Posey was injured as the Marlins Scott Cousins crashed into him at the plate. Posey, an All-Star catcher, sustained a broken bone in his lower left leg and three torn ligaments in his ankle, an injury that ended his season. In Game 5 of last years AL championship series, Detroit backstop Alex Avila was pulled a couple of innings after being run over at the plate by Bostons David Ross, a fellow catcher. "I think its fair. A runners path is to home plate," Oakland catcher Derek Norris said. "Any deviation and hes not trying to score, hes trying to harm. A runner going out of the basepath trying to break up a double play is declared out. This is the same concept as a double-play slide." Gardner Minshew II Jersey . Stevenson scored the first three goals of the game in the first period for Regina (35-22-6), which has won eight of its last 10 games. 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Leave it to Matt Niskanen, the newly proclaimed Eddie Haskell of the Washington Capitals.Raleigh, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - PNC Arena hasnt been kind to Duke since 2010. The Blue Devils were 1-3 in their past four games at North Carolina States home court entering Sundays ACC clash, including two losses to the Wolfpack and an untimely defeat in the second round of the 2014 NCAA Tournament against Mercer. Trevor Lacey scored 21 points and NC State upset No. 2 Duke 87-75, continuing its streak of strong play at home against the Blue Devils. Ralston Turner added 16 points on nine shots and BeeJay Anya gave 14 with four blocks off the bench for the Wolfpack (12-5, 3-1 ACC), who picked up a crucial win in their most grueling stretch of the season. They either play on the road or against a ranked team, or both, for six straight games. Im really proud of our team, said NC State coach Mark Gottfried. Duke won its first true road game of the season by 10 points against Wisconsin on Dec. 3, but couldnt duplicate that success in its second more than a month later. The Blue Devils (14-1, 2-1) got 23 points and 12 rebounds from Jahlil Okafor and 18 points from Quinn Cook in their first loss of the season. We played really well at times, but in our league, people arent going to play mediocre or poorly, said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who remains three wins shy of 1,000 for his career. You have to beat them when theyre playing well. Okafor scored eight quick points, hitting four of his first five shots in 5 1/2 minutes to boost Duke to an early lead. His putback dunk at 14:29 made it 13-8. But constant double teams of the star freshman held him without a field goal atttempt for the rest of the first half.dddddddddddd Okafor managed just two free throws off an offensive rebound over the final 15:31 of the first half, and the Wolfpack capitalized. Ive watched a lot of college basketball and I havent seen someone like Okafor at our level in a long time, Gottfried said. Hes different and he forces you to do so many different things defensively. Cody Martins layup sparked an 11-0 flurry, which Okafor finally ended with his two free throws. Kyle Washington scored seven straight during the spurt, which gave NC State its first lead of the game late in the half, which ended with the Wolfpack in front 37-33. Turner came alive after halftime, canning three 3s in five minutes to keep NC State in front. Justise Winslow hit from deep nearly eight minutes into the second half to draw Duke within two. The Wolfpack then embarked on a 12-1 run, taking advantage of turnovers and poor decisions in climbing out to a double-digit lead. Lacey and Anya both scored five points during the run, which made it 62-49. The spread grew to 19 points -- Dukes biggest deficit of the season -- following Laceys triple with 5:43 to play. Dukes fullcourt pressure late in the contest made things interesting, with a Cook 3-ball trimming the gap to 84-72. Anyas putback slam at the other end, and a fastbreak slam by Desmond Lee, were the daggers. Game Notes Okafor had three steals and three blocks on top of his fourth double-double of the season ... NC State outscored Duke 40-26 in the paint. 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