"We love to take punishment," says the catcher who has never had a serious injury from a home plate collision. I'm sure Brian Jeroloman is loving his punishment right now, too.

If the fielder wasn't allowed to stand in the basepath with the ball, how would he be able to tag the runner, who by rule must stay in the basepath? There would be a lot of missed tags in rundowns if the fielders were required to stay a few feet to the side of the runner and swipe at him as he goes by.

And yet this exact thing is done at every level of non-professional baseball, and the games work out just fine. If the catcher has the ball in the basepath, the runner has to slide or avoid a collision. If the ball beats him to home plate, he doesn't get to turn into a gladiator and try to demolish the catcher. He has…

A defensive player can't ever block the basepath unless he has the ball, in which case, wouldn't it make sense for the runner to try to run around him?

You are incorrect. If the catcher has the ball, he has a right to the basepath, same as the runner.

I'm paraphrasing, but from Little League through high school and American Legion (19 and under), the baserunner has to slide or avoid contact. Failure to do so results in ejection at these levels. The same rules apply in NCAA baseball, but I believe the penalty is an out, not an ejection. I'm not entirely sure about…

At every level of amateur baseball there are rules protecting the catcher from home plate collisions. It's really not difficult to figure out.

Their "armor" is designed to protect them from a 5-oz baseball, not a 200-lb human man. The runner initiates the contact. It's his decision to try to plow through the catcher. The rule needs to be changed so the catcher can't block the plate, but even so, the runner could slide far to the side and try to reach around…

This is fucked up. The entire sport is based on very specific skills (throwing, catching, hitting) that have nothing to do with physical contact, but in ONE situation it becomes legal for a player to take a 90-foot head start and clobber a vulnerable, stationary opponent. I mean, shit, this kind of thing gets football…

That's a pretty lazy joke, man. There are a lot of really good writers at the magazine. Not everyone at ESPN mails it in like Reilly.

Floyd Maybeather

Is this actually impressive to anyone or are we all just pretending because we're supposed to be amazed by everything Puig does?

Boo.

Not really, though.

Pretty cool how Deadspin refuses to take part in the Tebowmania. Only four posts in the 16 hours since his signing! It's great how you guys treat him like any other backup quarterback and don't contribute to the media shitstorm. You're above it all, kudos.

Yeah, but 5 hours and 24 minutes? Talk about a snoozer! I'll just cut a normal-sized cookie out of this giant-cookie game, thank you very much.

Your cookie analogy only works if the game you're watching isn't enjoyable in the first place. Watching a good baseball game that takes longer than expected is like opening a box of a dozen cookies and realizing they gave you fifteen. Anyone who's not ecstatic about that shouldn't have bought a dozen cookies in the…

Ripken thinks they did. http://www.cnbc.com/id/28116692

Can't believe I just now realized his name is actually a play on words. An interracial relationship in the South, now that's progressive.

If you look closely they are actually all the same shot. Someone has too much time on his hands to put together such an obviously fake video.