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It's a little too late for real justice as a surely sheepish Dodgers team got away with an NLDS-altering 5-2 victory that's already in the books, but MLB needs to suspend Chase Utley for changing sports in a nanosecond -- Utley must have been one helluva football player -- on a takeout play in which he took Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada not only out of the play but also out of the postseason, too.

The issue isn't just that Utley was rewarded for his absurd excuse for a slide and unhinged recklessness that's only applauded by folks stuck in the '70s or wearing Dodgers blue. In perhaps a baseball first, Utley was actually awarded second base by an umpiring crew and replay unit back in New York when he wasn't even trying for second base; he had been appropriately called out on the field (though out for the wrong reason).

The problem is that the play by Utley didn't ever come close to being clean. If there's a line separating clean from dirty, on this play Utley is wallowing in muck somewhere miles from the line, somewhere on the bottom of the Pacific.

While Utley's only intention surely was to break up a double play -- no one can fairly suggest that he aimed to break Tejada's right leg, though he did that, too -- much to even his own surprise Utley was actually pulled out of the dugout and placed on a base that wasn't even on his itinerary. Utley's slide -- which was actually a tackle, as the Mets' Kelly Johnson said -- on the twisting, turned-around Tejada was only designed to allow the tying run to score from third, as he himself stated. But the umpires gave him much more.

Thanks to the replay rule, an umpiring crew with the sensibility of Joe Friday (just the facts, ma'am) and sense of the O.J. jury that sat a scant few miles from here, they not only allowed Utley's "slide" to stick, they also figuratively patted him on the fanny for a play that belonged on the gridiron. Los Angeles misses football; well, it got some here.

Utley wasn't called out for interference and a double play properly ruled because interference wasn't called on the field, and that can't be changed because it's a "judgment call." So even though that non-call was as awful as they come, it sticks.

And Utley wasn't called out at second because replays suggested Tejada missed second base by a millimeter or two, causing the replay crew in New York to reverse the out call and reward Utley with a base that was never even in his plans, much less his route. He was long in the dugout when he was gift-wrapped the bag, as his target was Tejada, and Tejada alone.

Neither MLB's czar of fair play, Joe Torre, one of the best spokesmen in baseball, and perhaps anywhere, or anyone else affiliated with the sport, adequately explained why if neither player touched the base, but one attempted to and came within a millimeter of it before being obliterated by the other, the fellow who didn’t try for the base but did the damage also gets the base.

To add insult to injury, it was explained that if either a prone, wrecked Tejada or some other Met tagged either Utley or the bag, Utley would have been out. But of course, they did not. No surprise, Tejada doesn't move well with a freshly broken leg and no crutch (that came later), and no one on the Mets thought to tag Utley after he had already been ruled out and retreated to the Dodgers dugout, as anyone would have once they'd been appropriately called out (but for the wrong reason).

Utley had to be shocked, along with everyone not sitting on the replay crew, that he was pulled out of the dugout, where he repaired while receiving congratulations for keeping the Dodgers season alive. But he wasn't done. A windfall was about to be his. With second base now Utley's, an on-field misdeed now rewarded like never before, he went from champion of the hard-nosed to hero of the game. Adrian Gonzalez and Justin Turner quickly delivered run-scoring hits to turn Utley's misdeed into the Dodgers' play of the year (though I doubt it will be part of their highlight reel).

There is no way to make up now for the game-turning call and the loss of Tejada, who had worked to regain his shortstop spot after a couple years where his game was on hiatus, but it's surely time for MLB to take a stand against dirty, beyond-the pale plays, even if they go unnoticed at first.

MLB will surely consider protecting all infielders after this well-watched wreck, and maybe that's worth a look. They did, after all, protect catchers -- though that one is differentiated to me by the fact that a catcher is a sitting duck and by the play’s nature isn't moving away from the runner. What MLB really needs to do is train the umpires not to accept, and maybe even admire, plays that conjure up a bygone era but never really should have been overlooked or allowed in the first place.

The baserunner needs to be within the 213/310 area code of the bag while breaking up the double play (Utley was not, despite a suggestion or two to the contrary), he needs to slide before he gets to the bag (Torre did say the "lateness" of the slide did bother him, as it should) and he needs to hit dirt before he hits the runner (Utley didn't do that, either, taking the collar on fair play).

A majority of players and ex-players/pundits who commented – Pedro Martinez and Alex Cora were especially wise in their criticisms of Utley’s play on TV -- understood the play was wrong. And some other smart baseball people understood that Tejada is the one deserves to be considered here. Justin Upton: 

But of course, a few players complimented Utley for his hard, "winning" play on Twitter, and that has more to do with a macho attitude than actual common sense. That message seemed to be: If you get away with it, it's cool.

So now is the time for MLB to leave that '70s style play in the past, eschew recklessness for reasonableness, take a real look at what's right, and send a message that fair play still counts by sending Utley for the postseason to the bench, where he belonged all along after his over-the-top brand of interference.

Chase Utley's brutal take out slide kept the Dodgers alive in Game 2.
Chase Utley's brutal take out slide should be addressed by Major League Baseball. (USATSI)