According to Sandy Alderson, the MLB rules committee will ban home plate collisions next season. This comes after there have been multiple high-profile injuries lately in the game, including catchers like Buster Posey losing big chunks of the season.
Interestingly, the plays will be subject to replay, as there will be some subjectivity to their enforcement. From Grant Brisbee's piece on collisions is the NCAA rule on collisions:
When there is a collision between a runner and a fielder who clearly is in possession of the ball, the umpire shall judge:
If the defensive player blocks the base (plate) or base line with clear possession of the ball, the runner may make contact, slide into or make contact with a fielder as long as the runner is making a legitimate attempt to reach the base (plate). Contact above the waist that was initiated by the base runner shall not be judged as an attempt to reach the base or plate.
That means that a player won't be required to slide every time and that a catcher won't be able to necessarily block the plate with abandon. But, what this should do is lengthen the careers of Astros catchers like Jason Castro and Carlos Corporan. Corporan, especially, has dealt with multiple concussion-related DL stints thanks to collisions at home plate.
What do you think? Are we all agreed that this is a good thing? That while Ray Fosse and Pete Rose are nice memories, what we now know about head injuries means that keeping a dangerous play in the game is just too much? Or, do you see any practical reasons why this rule should't be in place?