If it had happened on the slopes instead of at the plate, it would have been a yard sale.
At least Rockies catcher Chris Iannetta saw his head-on collision with the Diamondbacks’ Justin Upton coming Friday afternoon at Coors Field.
“I knew if there was a groundball, it was probably going to happen,” Iannetta said.
Oh, it happened, all right. Iannetta had a nasty welt on the right side of his neck to prove it. But all that mattered in the aftermath of his close encounter with Upton in the 10th inning was that he held on to the ball.
“I was just fortunate I had time to catch the ball and secure it,” Iannetta said. “You just try to absorb it as much as you can and move on. It was a clean play.”
Anyone yearning to satisfy a football jones in the aftermath of the NFL lockout should have seen this one. Upton, who goes 205 pounds, was barreling to the plate, but Iannetta took a throw from shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and applied the tag as Upton blew him up.
Yes, it was a nasty collision. But no, Iannetta didn’t have a problem with it. To the contrary. He applauded Upton for doing anything he could to score the go-ahead run.
“I’m a big fan of it,” Iannetta said.
He isn’t the only one. Said Tulowitzki, when asked if the thought crossed his mind that the collision wasn’t going to be pretty: “I think it is pretty. It’s baseball at its best. That was aggressive baserunning on their part, a groundball to me and still go.
“He was coming at full speed and I know he hit Chris pretty good, but Chris is tough back there. It was good baseball all around.”
Said Rockies manager Jim Tracy: “That was a good one. That was a really, really good one.”
