Chris Carlson/Associated Press
The Dodgers' Brian Jordan crashing into Padres catcher Gary Bennett in a 2003 game. Bennett injured a knee on the play.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Bruce Bochy spent his first career in baseball as a catcher, his second as a manager. He has absorbed the crush of oncoming base runners and felt the sickening despair of witnessing his own catchers' injuries in collisions at the plate.
"The way these catchers are getting speared, they don't have a chance," Bochy said Wednesday. "I think it's better to be proactive before we carry a guy off the field paralyzed and think, 'Why didn't we change this rule?' "
Now they have decided to do so. In the first step to formally eradicating a thrilling but dangerous staple of the game — and an emphatic response to the concussion crisis that has gripped other sports — Major League Baseball's rules committee voted Wednesday to eliminate home-plate collisions.
Bochy, the manager of the San Francisco Giants, and St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny, whose catching career was cut short by concussions, made presentations to M.L.B.'s senior vice president, Joe Torre, and some other managers in the morning.
The committee eagerly adopted the guidelines in the afternoon.
"It was unanimous that it's time," Bochy said. "It was very encouraging. I personally thought either through the managers or general managers or the rules committee, there would be a few more naysayers. But there wasn't one."
Some former catchers, like Oakland Athletics Manager Bob Melvin and Detroit Tigers Manager Brad Ausmus, wondered how ingrained instincts could be removed from the game. Base runners strive to score, and catchers strive to prevent them from scoring.
"I am a little bit old school in the sense that I don't want to turn home plate into just another tag play," Ausmus said. "This is a run. This is the difference between possibly making the playoffs and not making the playoffs. It should matter a little bit more. In my mind, I'd love to see something that if there's a collision, any hit above the shoulders, maybe the runner is out. I don't know how it's going to pan out."
Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson, speaking for the rules committee, said the language of the rule and its method of enforcement were still to be determined. When the wording is completed, the rule will be submitted to ownership for approval in January, and then to the players union.
If the union approves, the rule will take effect for the 2014 season. If not, it could be unilaterally imposed for 2015. Either way, change is coming, and a mentality that persisted for decades will be officially outdated.
"When I was growing up as a kid in Philadelphia, it was a badge of honor," said Los Angeles Angels Manager Mike Scioscia, a former catcher. "You were expected to hang in at the plate, and the runner was expected to do everything he could to tag the plate. We're going back 40 years ago, but the mind-set has changed a bit."
Scioscia, who was widely celebrated for blocking the plate in his playing career, was asked to recall his most vicious collision. He responded that he could not clearly remember the worst shot he took.
"I got knocked out at home plate," Scioscia said. "I've been dizzy. Chili Davis absolutely hit me the hardest, no doubt, and I managed to find a way to our dugout. Jack Clark helped me at home plate; I needed some help being taken off the field. I don't remember those, to be honest with you."
The N.F.L. — with many more violent collisions than baseball — was slow in responding to the concussion problem, playing it down or denying it for years, at great cost, both monetarily and to the league's reputation. Baseball is less dependent on contact plays, but it has some inherent risks, especially for catchers.
A foul ball to the mask caused a concussion last summer for the Minnesota Twins star Joe Mauer, who announced last month that he would now play first base. The idea behind Wednesday's vote, Alderson said, was to make the game safer without changing its essence.
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