Utleygate

So Chase Utley’s dirty slide inspires a major rule change, but MLB can’t bring itself to uphold Utley’s measly two-game suspension. As the Daily News’s Anthony McCarron writes, “you can pretty much circle May 9 as the date when Utley will get the real penalty for the dirty slide that broke Ruben Tejada’s leg last October.” That’s the day the Mets and Dodgers meet for the first time this season. As Squawker Lisa would say, get your popcorn ready!

At least I hope it’s May 9, or whenever Utley first steps up to the plate against the Mets. Not a rerun of the season and a half it took to get any sort of retaliation against Roger Clemens after his 2000 roid rage. And all most people remember about that is Shawn Estes throwing behind Clemens, and not Estes and Mike Piazza homering off of Clemens in that June 15, 2002 game.

For what it’s worth, the Mets’ failure to respond against Clemens in a timely and appropriate fashion coincided with the team sinking from the 2000 pennant into years of losing. But with pitchers like Matt Harvey and Noah Syndergaard, the 2016 Mets figure to write a different story.

Let me emphasize that I am not rooting for Utley to get hurt or for the Mets to throw at his head. I just want the Met pitchers to let Utley know that they were not happy about what happened and, new rules or not, here’s what happens if you try it again.

Coincidentally, May 9 is also the day Aroldis Chapman is eligible to be reinstated from his suspension. Looks like a potentially big baseball day around here!

Meanwhile, Jennry Mejia, banned for life, claims he’s the victim of an MLB witch hunt. Mejia admits he failed his first drug test, but disputes the next two failed tests, claiming that MLB faked the third failed test after he appealed the second one. The Times notes that two of the tests found evidence of boldenone, a steroid used in horse racing. Lisa, I think I know what you would have to say about whether Mejia’s allegations have any validity – neigh!

As Lisa noted, Subway Squawkers recently celebrated our tenth anniversary. During that time, we have generally steered clear of politics, but it’s a strange and troubling political time, so I’m glad Lisa went off topic Saturday with  #NeverTrump: Donald Trump for president? That joke isn’t funny anymore.