Buster Posey underwent surgery for his broken right ankle on Sunday, and the good news first: it was successful!
Of course, "successful" in this case means "Posey's likely out for the year but should eventually make a full recovery," so it's worth tempering the excitement relating to his trip by the surgeon.
Per Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury-News, the surgery was performed by Dr. Ken Akizuki and assisted by foot specialist Dr. Larry Oloff and 49ers orthopedist Dr. Michael Dillingham.
Posey said on Friday that he expects to miss the remainder of the season but the specific time frame for his recover is still a bit up in the air. The Giants expect to know more now that Posey's gone under the knife and can start rehabilitating the ankle.
Interestingly, we're three days removed from Posey's injury -- with much of the country enjoying a holiday weekend no less -- and everyone is still hotly debating whether or not MLB needs to change the rules about making contact with the catcher on a play at the plate.
For the record, Posey's agent says yes. And I agree with him.
Perhaps the most interesting perspective on this whole affair, though, comes from John Baker, catcher for the Florida Marlins and a teammate of Scott Cousins.
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Baker, writing for Yahoo! Sports' always-excellent Big League Stew, disagrees with my stance, and makes some valid points. Namely, that if Posey had "caught the ball, tagged out Cousins, and not had his metal spikes stick into the ground, that play would have been in the top 10 on SportsCenter as more evidence of Posey's greatness."
Also, "no one would have cried foul and demanded the rules be changed."
Baker is almost certainly correct -- people would have watched the replay almost as many times for almost entirely different reasons, and cheered Posey on.
Though that might be the case, it doesn't mean that we should simply ignore a change that would improve player safety in baseball.
And that's something Baker agrees with -- he believes a "Buster Posey Rule" will eventually be put into effect, and that thanks to Posey's injury, we'll see backstops live a much safer life when it comes to home-plate collisions.
That certainly won't bring Posey back from a season-ending injury, though, so it's about as nice a consolation as "successful surgery."
