Quote Originally Posted by MikeThierry View Post
Is there such a thing as a clear attempt to take out a player without it being dirty? I think we see it all the time at 2B. As you and I have observed, he did change the angle of his run exactly as Molina caught it so it was clear he was trying to take out Yadi. I don't know if it was dirty though because of the lack of spikes.
Yeah that's the point I'm getting at. I think taking a player out is perfectly fine as long as you're not doing it to injure someone. If you're not going at the knees or trying to cleat someone, then taking someone out is a good baseball play.

If he were trying to plow over a defenseless player, go at the knees of another player or simply having his spikes up in the air, I'd have a real problem with the play. But he did none of those things.

Simply sliding in at a player can give a split second for the slide to be completed as the natural instinct is to brace for contact. Heisey probably thought he was dead to rights so that's likely what he was doing. In hindsight, if he slides away from contact, he would have certainly been better off in that situation.