Chase Utley’s family received death threats after his slide broke Ruben Tejada’s leg during the 2015 National League Division Series, according to a report.
Mets fans were so furious with Utley’s slide that his family was targeted with death threats, and Utley did not stay in the same hotel as his Dodgers teammates when they made the trip to New York, though that was mere coincidence.
“That was the plan prior to anything,” Utley said, via Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times. “It was probably better off that way.”
Utley is laid back about the whole situation, and the fact that Mets fans viscerally hate him. He called the boos “part of the deal” and said he has no extra incentive to shut up Mets fans. He just wants to win.
The Dodgers had, and continue to have, Utley’s back with regards to the controversial slide.
“Chase was playing the game the way he’s always played,” said teammate Clayton Kershaw. “Obviously you never want anybody to get hurt. The game being in the playoffs, and all that stuff, magnified everything. But there’s been a whole lot of slides a lot worse than that over the course of baseball [history]. Some of the stuff he had to go through, it wasn’t fair.”
Interestingly, in stark contrast to how Mets fans viewed the slide, at least one Mets coach had no problem with how Utley played the game.
“Your player got hurt, so everybody was upset about it,” said Bob Geren, who was the Mets’ bench coach during the 2015 season but now holds the same position with the Dodgers. “But you look at it, and that was just the way the game has been played since I played. In fact, I’ve seen some of the other ones in the ’70s that were incredible.”
I understand Utley being booed by New York fans, and that’s fine. But death threats are unacceptable, especially against the guy’s family. He’s a hard-nosed player who made a poor slide.
