Every sports fanbase has a rival player they absolutely despise. For the New York Mets, that player they hate so much is undoubtedly former Philadelphia Phillies infielder Chase Utley. The main reason why the Mets faithful don't view Utley in a bright light is due in part to what he did to Ruben Tejada in the 2015 NLDS.
Utley was a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and was trying to reach second base on a ground ball up the middle by Howie Kendrick. As Tejada had his back turned, Utley slid hard into his leg to break up a potential double play. That play resulted in Tejada suffering a fractured right fibula in what turned out to be his final game with the Mets.
During an appearance on Barstool Sports' Pardon My Take, Utley was asked to talk about the slide. Utley said that he didn't mean to slide into Tejada that hard as he tried to break up the potential double play.
One of our resident Mets fans confronted Chase Utley about his infamous slide @PardonMyTake pic.twitter.com/3l27o9Nd9R
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) July 23, 2025
"I didn't anticipate actually hitting him nearly as hard as I did. I was anticipating him jumping up in the air...it's happening pretty quick," said Utley. "As he took the feed, I'm thinking, 'okay, he's going to hit the bag, get up off his feet, and try to throw it.'
"I'm trying to slide a little bit with my body higher so I can clip a leg and get his throw off. But instead, he spun, which I was definitely not anticipating.
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Chase Utley's comments about dirty 2015 NLDS slide will only make Mets fans angrier
Utley continued, saying that he felt "terrible" about the slide and that he tried to reach out to Tejada to apologize. Utley says that Tejada wanted no part of an apology, which he understands.
"Looking back on it, I didn't feel good about it. I felt terrible about it. I had no intention of hurting him whatsoever. I attempted to apologize to him, he wanted no part of it - which I understand," said Utley.
Tejada spoke about the slide in the past and admitted he didn't want to hear an apology for Utley, despite the Dodgers and Phillies player sending him gifts. Tejada's main issue with the slide is that Utley did it despite being a middle infielder as well, which hurt the former Mets player.
“I know it’s part of the game, but not like that,’’ Tejada told the New York Post back in 2016. “I would never do that to another infielder. That is the position I play and I would never want to hurt another player that plays that position like that. It would have been different if some other position player, a corner infielder or an outfielder had done that to me, but he is an middle infielder, he should know better.’’
At the time of that slide, Utley was suspended for two games, which he appealed. Eventually, the suspension was dropped by MLB chief baseball officer Joe Torre.
Mets fans were never going to be forgiving of Utley considering he broke the leg of one of their players during their run to the World Series on what was a dirty slide. Even though Utley tried to apologize to Tejada and said he would have tried to do things differently, he still said he would have tried to find another way to disrupt the play.