abaggarly@mercurynews.com Buster Posey will put on his customary helmet, shinguards and chest protector when he gets behind the plate in a few months. But he won’t get any additional safeguards in the rule book.

Although Giants officials remain in favor of a rule change that would protect catchers from being targeted in home-plate collisions, the matter didn’t come up officially at the winter meetings last week in Dallas. It didn’t get past Joe Torre, Major League Baseball’s vice president for on-field operations.

Torre heard out Giants manager Bruce Bochy in several phone calls over the summer but declined to recommend that the rules committee take up the matter.

“Well, listen, I knew it was more emotional than anything else,” Torre said last week. “None of us like to see that. But I really haven’t heard anything that would encourage me to change anything or recommend a change. Being a catcher for a lot of years, I knew what the consequences were.”

Bochy isn’t giving up. He spoke informally with several managers at the winter meetings in an attempt to build consensus; he said at least four or five agreed that a change was warranted. Tony La Russa, who retired after leading the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series, was among those on board, Bochy said.

Giants vice president Bobby Evans started his own grass-roots campaign with officials from other clubs at the General

Manager’s meetings in Milwaukee in November, Bochy said.

“I’ll continue to push for it,” said Bochy, who plans to raise the issue with Torre again this spring. “Sure, I’m disappointed. But it’s going to take other managers also getting involved, and some of them believe it does need to be changed. It’s something I’ll still pursue.”

The Posey play was a perfect storm in the 12th inning of a tie game on May 25 against the Florida Marlins. Rookie baserunner Scott Cousins tried to tag up on a fly ball that Nate Schierholtz caught in medium right field. Knowing that Schierholtz has a strong arm, Cousins said he knew the ball would beat him to the plate and he’d have to break up the play.

But the throw short-hopped in front of Posey and he wasn’t able to make a clean stop. As Posey turned toward the plate, still in fair territory, Cousins clearly went inside the baseline while leading with his right shoulder. Posey had dropped to one knee and his left ankle was pinned underneath him as the force of the blow toppled him over. His fibula sustained a fracture and he tore three ankle ligaments, which required two surgical procedures to repair. Posey couldn’t walk for three months.

Although his Giants teammates called it a clean play, Posey and club officials pointed out that Cousins had a clear lane to the plate. He chose to take out Posey instead of slide.

Bochy has lobbied for a rule that would award a catcher “a safe area, a neutral zone, whatever you want to call it, where he’s protected — particularly if he’s taking a throw from right field and is vulnerable”

Torre said he couldn’t get behind that idea.

“People have pointed out, ‘He was given a piece of the plate to slide to.’ And that’s true, he was,” Torre said. “But once (Posey) catches the ball, as a runner, you know that piece is gone. He’s going to block it. That play was not Buster’s fault. He’s trying to receive the ball, retain it, and here comes the runner. … He had committed to break up the play.”

Bochy said GMs in November discussed instituting a no-collision rule in exhibition games, but there’s no chance any meaningful protection wouldn’t come before opening day. Bochy acknowledged the argument that runners could get hurt if they were forced to slide, but said there are ways to tweak the rules that would make the game safer for everyone.

“You’ll have collisions at home plate. You can’t take that away,” Bochy said. “But it’s protecting the catcher when he’s vulnerable. It shouldn’t take something really terrible to happen before something gets done. We need to change this. These runners are getting bigger, stronger and faster.”

The collision is further incentive for the Giants, and other teams with offensively gifted catchers, to think harder about moving their young stars out of harm’s way.

Torre said he hasn’t closed the book on the issue, even if he doesn’t see himself reconsidering.

“We’ll continue to listen,” Torre said. “I’ll listen to anything that makes sense, and you know if it comes from people like them (Bochy and GM Brian Sabean), they always make a lot of sense. So I’ll listen.”

If a change ever does come, Bochy would make one more request.

“I don’t want to see this referred to as a “Buster Posey rule,’” Bochy said. “This has happened before. It’s time to make a change for the good of the game.”

For more on the Giants, see Andrew Baggarly’s Extra Baggs blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/extrabaggs.

abaggarly@mercurynews.com Buster Posey will put on his customary helmet, shinguards and chest protector when he gets behind the plate in a few months. But he won’t get any additional safeguards in the rule book.

Although Giants officials remain in favor of a rule change that would protect catchers from being targeted in home-plate collisions, the matter didn’t come up officially at the winter meetings last week in Dallas. It didn’t get past Joe Torre, Major League Baseball’s vice president for on-field operations.

Torre heard out Giants manager Bruce Bochy in several phone calls over the summer but declined to recommend that the rules committee take up the matter.

“Well, listen, I knew it was more emotional than anything else,” Torre said last week. “None of us like to see that. But I really haven’t heard anything that would encourage me to change anything or recommend a change. Being a catcher for a lot of years, I knew what the consequences were.”

Bochy isn’t giving up. He spoke informally with several managers at the winter meetings in an attempt to build consensus; he said at least four or five agreed that a change was warranted. Tony La Russa, who retired after leading the St. Louis Cardinals to the World Series, was among those on board, Bochy said.

Giants vice president Bobby Evans started his own grass-roots campaign with officials from other clubs at the General

Manager’s meetings in Milwaukee in November, Bochy said.

“I’ll continue to push for it,” said Bochy, who plans to raise the issue with Torre again this spring. “Sure, I’m disappointed. But it’s going to take other managers also getting involved, and some of them believe it does need to be changed. It’s something I’ll still pursue.”

The Posey play was a perfect storm in the 12th inning of a tie game on May 25 against the Florida Marlins. Rookie baserunner Scott Cousins tried to tag up on a fly ball that Nate Schierholtz caught in medium right field. Knowing that Schierholtz has a strong arm, Cousins said he knew the ball would beat him to the plate and he’d have to break up the play.

But the throw short-hopped in front of Posey and he wasn’t able to make a clean stop. As Posey turned toward the plate, still in fair territory, Cousins clearly went inside the baseline while leading with his right shoulder. Posey had dropped to one knee and his left ankle was pinned underneath him as the force of the blow toppled him over. His fibula sustained a fracture and he tore three ankle ligaments, which required two surgical procedures to repair. Posey couldn’t walk for three months.

Although his Giants teammates called it a clean play, Posey and club officials pointed out that Cousins had a clear lane to the plate. He chose to take out Posey instead of slide.

Bochy has lobbied for a rule that would award a catcher “a safe area, a neutral zone, whatever you want to call it, where he’s protected — particularly if he’s taking a throw from right field and is vulnerable”

Torre said he couldn’t get behind that idea.

“People have pointed out, ‘He was given a piece of the plate to slide to.’ And that’s true, he was,” Torre said. “But once (Posey) catches the ball, as a runner, you know that piece is gone. He’s going to block it. That play was not Buster’s fault. He’s trying to receive the ball, retain it, and here comes the runner. … He had committed to break up the play.”

Bochy said GMs in November discussed instituting a no-collision rule in exhibition games, but there’s no chance any meaningful protection wouldn’t come before opening day. Bochy acknowledged the argument that runners could get hurt if they were forced to slide, but said there are ways to tweak the rules that would make the game safer for everyone.

“You’ll have collisions at home plate. You can’t take that away,” Bochy said. “But it’s protecting the catcher when he’s vulnerable. It shouldn’t take something really terrible to happen before something gets done. We need to change this. These runners are getting bigger, stronger and faster.”

The collision is further incentive for the Giants, and other teams with offensively gifted catchers, to think harder about moving their young stars out of harm’s way.

Torre said he hasn’t closed the book on the issue, even if he doesn’t see himself reconsidering.

“We’ll continue to listen,” Torre said. “I’ll listen to anything that makes sense, and you know if it comes from people like them (Bochy and GM Brian Sabean), they always make a lot of sense. So I’ll listen.”

If a change ever does come, Bochy would make one more request.

“I don’t want to see this referred to as a “Buster Posey rule,’” Bochy said. “This has happened before. It’s time to make a change for the good of the game.”

For more on the Giants, see Andrew Baggarly’s Extra Baggs blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/extrabaggs.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two men accused of brutally beating San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow in a Dodger Stadium parking lot on opening day should be held liable for potentially tens of millions of dollars in a family lawsuit, an attorney who represents the team and its owner said Thursday.

Lawyer Jerome Jackson filed a cross-complaint last week that argues Marvin Norwood and Louis Sanchez — not the Dodgers— are to blame for the brain damage that Stow suffered in March. Both Norwood and Sanchez have pleaded not guilty to one count each of mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury, and battery with serious bodily injury.

Jackson also predicted that if the case goes to trial, jurors could decide that Stow himself shares some of the blame.

“I’ve been doing these cases for 23 years and I have never seen one yet which it didn’t take at least two people to tango,” Jackson told ESPNLosAngeles.com.

“One of the things the jury will be asked to do is to determine what percentage of fault various individuals have for this event,” Jackson told the website. “You’re saying to the jury, ‘They (the Stow family) are saying we’re 100% liable. But does that mean (Marvin) Norwood and (Louis) Sanchez who beat this guy up, have no liability? And does it mean Mr. Stow himself has no liability?’”

“We want all the defendants and all the facts before the court,” Jackson told The Associated Press.

Stow’s negligence and liability lawsuit, filed earlier this year and before Norwood and Sanchez were arrested, only blames the Dodgers organization and owner Frank McCourt for the attack, alleging poor lighting and security problems at the ballpark. The cross-complaint adds Stow’s alleged attackers as defendants.

Jackson said the outrage that ensued after the attack toward McCourt has been misdirected.

“If these two suspects are indeed found guilty, I think most people would agree they bear some financial responsibility,” Jackson said. “It wasn’t Mr. McCourt out there beating people up in the parking lot.”

A call to Stow family attorney Tom Girardi wasn’t immediately returned.

Stow, a 42-year-old paramedic from Santa Cruz, suffered serious brain injuries during the attack. He was recently moved from San Francisco General Hospital to a rehabilitation center.

The Dodgers filed for bankruptcy protection in Delaware earlier this year and Stow’s representatives sit on the official committee of creditors. Girardi has contended his client’s medical bills could exceed $50 million.

The creditors’ committee and Fox Sports each asked a judge to deny the Dodgers’ bid to auction television rights, which is key to McCourt’s strategy to emerge from bankruptcy as the team’s owner.

A four-day evidentiary hearing pitting the Dodgers against Major League Baseball and slated to begin on Monday has been pushed back to late November.

The Texas Rangers have returned to the
World Series, but this is a vastly different club than the one
that fell in five games to the San Francisco Giants in last
year’s Fall Classic.

It is a re-tooled squad ever more determined to succeed.

Young pitchers have stepped up to fortify the a starting
rotation following the departure of ace starter Cliff Lee, a
pair of sluggers have been added and a bolstered bullpen have
all helped to make the Rangers favourites to claim Major League
Baseball’s championship for the first time.

Texas manager Ron Washington said the road back began with
a commitment made after last year’s World Series loss.

“On November the first we committed ourselves to trying to
get back here because we knew we had the potential in the
clubhouse to do it,” Washington told reporters on Tuesday at
Busch Stadium, where the Rangers worked out to prepare for
Wednesday’s Game One.

“A lot of times people say a lot of things that they like
to do, and they don’t usually live up to it. But the character
inside my clubhouse, they lived up to it.”

Lee, who left as a free agent to join the Philadelphia
Phillies, was a mentor in 2010 for C.J. Wilson, who converted
from a reliever to a starting pitcher and has become the new
number one on the Texas staff.

“A lot of us sat in the locker room after Game Five against
the Giants and we were really upset,” said Wilson, who will
start the Series opener against Chris Carpenter. “We’re like,
this is not how we wanted it to go.

“We are here to win, and that’s what we’ve been doing all
year, and the sting of losing last year is what carried us
through the off-season and helped us take it to the next
level.”

When the Rangers realized they were not going to be able to
re-sign Lee, they set their sights on power-hitting third
baseman Adrian Beltre, who left the Boston Red Sox as a free
agent, and signed him to a five-year, $80 million deal.

Beltre delivered 32 home runs, 105 runs batted in and a
.296 batting average besides a great glove at third base.

With the emergence of young Neftali Feliz as their closer,
the Rangers were able send former closer Frank Francisco to the
Toronto Blue Jays for power-hitting catcher Mike Napoli, who
belted 30 home runs and drove in 75.

Those two players helped in other ways as well, Washington
said.

“When we got Beltre … he brought leadership. Brought
tremendous offensive capability and tremendous defensive
capability, and leadership, also,” said the Rangers manager.

“We always knew what (Napoli) was capable of doing as far
as getting on base and punching the ball out of the ballpark,
but here we had another guy that was a leader, and he turned
out to be a tremendous receiver. Helped our young pitching
staff make it through the year.”

Mid-season acquisition of relievers Mike Adams, Mike
Gonzalez and Koji Uehara shored up the bullpen and the Rangers
roared on to the American League West title and eliminated the
Tampa Bay Rays and Detroit Tigers in the playoffs to return to
Major League Baseball’s grandest stage.

“I think (slugging outfielder Josh) Hamilton put it as
perfectly as it can be put,” Washington said. “Right now we
expect to win, and that’s the attitude we have.”

If mascots were Major League Baseball players, Lou Seal would be Cal Ripken Jr.

The San Francisco Giants mascot is a staple of all the team’s home games, and his durability is now beginning to get recognized by those across baseball.

What’s truly incredible about the lovable seal mascot, though, is that Joel Zimei, the man beneath the suit, hasn’t missed a home game in nearly 13 years, according to The Associated Press.

When the Giants wrap up their season on Wednesday, Zimei will have entertained the Giants faithful for 1,054 straight home games, which dates back to the final days of Candlestick Park.

Appearing in front of thousands of fans on nearly a nightly basis has become so common place for Zimei that he’s essentially become Lou Seal.

“It’s almost automatic, no matter how I’m feeling,” Zimei told The Associated Press. “It’s like hitting an involuntary switch and I just become Lou. After 13 years, sooner or later, it just blends.”

Zimei, who noted that the streak is the longest such, said that he’s battled through any injuries he’s had over the years, which includes a broken hand he suffered after punching a brick wall at the season finale in 2004 when he realized the Giants had not made the postseason.

Click here to see photos of Lou Seal in all his glory >>