Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo’s hard slide into Pirates catcher Elias Diaz Monday was a cheap shot. Worse, it was a punk move from the blind side against a defenseless player.
It wasn’t “good baseball,” as Rizzo’s condescending wannabe funny guy manager Joe Maddon claimed it was. I give Maddon credit, though. At least he didn’t come up with some misguided wisecrack about Diaz having plantar fasciitis, like he did in 2015, when Jung Ho Kang nearly got his leg taken off on a dirty slide by Chris Coghlan.
Umpires couldn’t protect Kang because the sliding rules hadn’t yet been changed to protect fielders and catchers.