CBS Sports is reporting that Chase Utley’s appeal hearing on his two-day suspension by Major League Baseball will not he held today. The hearing has been delayed to allow Utley time to prepare his case.
Utley was suspended Sunday by decision of Joe Torre, MLB’s chief baseball officer (what a title) after Los Angeles Dodgers utility player Utley slid hard into New York Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada in Saturday’s NLDS game, helping tie the score of that game and leaving Tejada with a broken right leg. Torre maintains the slide was out of bounds and requires discipline. Utley and his agent maintain the slide was within baseball’s rules and should not be punished.
See a minority take on the matter here.
The Mets are up two games to one in the best of five National League Division Series. If Clayton Kershaw is not on his game tonight at Citi Field in New York (8:07 p.m. Right Coast Time on TBS) the question of Utley’s suspension will be moot, as the Dodgers will be making their individual ways home for the off-season after the game.
