Nick Piccone
Maikel Franco injured himself – temporarily – while rounding first base last night. Lots of people are up in arms over the way he ran out of the box when he hit a double that scored Andres Blanco and gave the Phillies a 4-3 lead in the 7th inning last night.
It was Jimmy Rollins-esque. Not the way he ran out of the box, but because of the way people are getting on his case because of it.
In fact, I heard one caller on the radio on my drive to work this morning say Franco lacks heart. We’re already here, folks. Nevermind the fact that Franco almost got seriously hurt, but let’s rag on him because he didn’t run 100% down the first base line after he hit the ball because he thought it was a home run. Let’s do that.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO OF FRANCO TRIPPING OVER FIRST BASE HERE.
Now, I’m generally an old school type of guy when it comes to baseball, I’ve played it at a high level and I’d like to think I know most of the intricacies of the game. It’s impossible to ask any professional athlete to hustle 100% of the time. Chase Utley may be one of the very few professional athletes I’ve seen in my lifetime that provides an exemplary way to play the game. But not everyone’s built that way, and we should all realize that. Chase was special.
I saw Franco’s hit live and the first thing I thought about wasn’t his lack of hustle around first base. It was that OH MY GOD, I HOPE HIS ANKLE IS OK! Luckily, it seems that it is. And now people are mad at him for jogging out of the box because he thought he hit a home run, which, by the way, we never got on Ryan Howard for when he hit towering shots that hit off the fence for a double.
Here’s how I see it: Franco didn’t increase his chances of injury rounding first base based on how he ran out of the box. Anyone who runs the bases in any level of baseball realizes they should hit the base with their right foot and push off while rounding any base, with the exception of home plate. It’s common sense. And common sense was lost on Franco last night, because he rounded first base with his left foot first, which caused him to slip and fall.
I understand why people here hate how athletes lack hustle sometimes. I get it. But this really isn’t something to get up in arms over, especially because Franco is the franchise guy right now. Are you all really ready to get on his case and give him some ammunition to find a new team when his contract runs out? Are we already starting that now? His arbitration years end after 2021. The Phillies are going to try their best to sign him to a long-term extension before then. They already have tried, actually. Let’s not get all bent out of shape about this.