TORONTO -- Major League Baseballs new rule on home plate collisions is causing some confusion. Brandon Brennan Mariners Jersey . Houston Astros manager Bo Porter had a telephone conversation Wednesday with Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa, currently a special assistant to baseball commissioner Bud Selig. Porter said La Russa told him the league intends to clarify its rule on blocking the plate, and how such calls are challenged and reviewed. "My understanding is there will be a memo coming out that will bring some more clarity to it," Porter said before the Astros played the Blue Jays on Wednesday night. MLB spokesman Michael Teevan said he wasnt aware of any plans for a new memo. Porter telephoned La Russa after Astros outfielder L.J. Hoes was called out at the plate on an infield grounder in the eighth inning of Tuesdays 5-2 loss. That made him the second manager in four days to pick up the phone after a call at home plate. On Saturday, Yankees manager Joe Girardi spoke to Joe Torre, an MLB executive vice-president, over his concern there was "confusion to the rule." New Yorks Francisco Cervelli was called out trying to score against Toronto, even though Blue Jays catcher Josh Thole was straddling the plate before receiving the ball. "I believe this is going to be the toughest overall for (umpires) to get right all the time," Girardi said after Saturdays 4-0 loss to Toronto. "To me, its a vague interpretation of what blocking home plate is and I think it needs to be in writing." In January, baseball adopted a new rule on plate collisions on an experimental basis for this year. Under the rule, catchers are prevented from blocking a runners path to the plate unless they have possession of the ball. "Its a rule that was ... agreed to late, and I dont know if everything has been completely ironed out," Girardi said Sunday. Porter said he planned to speak to the umpiring crew during the exchange of lineup cards before Wednesdays game to ask for their interpretation of the rule, and the challenge process on those plays. Wholesale Mariners Jerseys . -- The Chicago Bears have agreed to a one-year contract with cornerback Kelvin Hayden. Stitched Mariners Jerseys . He never mentioned anything about his hitting. The 33-year-old right-hander had success with both Sunday, pitching six solid innings and helping the offence-starved Mets with an RBI single as New York salvaged a doubleheader split with a 4-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. https://www.cheapmariners.com/2775k-jeff-nelson-jersey-mariners.html .com) - The fading Ottawa Senators have a chance to make up some ground in the playoff race on Tuesday night as they play host to the New York Rangers. NEW YORK -- As the NHL eyes expanded video review, its unlikely to solve problems with goaltender interference. The leagues competition committee met Monday, two days after a controversial goal in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final that involved contact on Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, and discussed making more situations subject to review. But because of the variables present, theres no comfort level about making goaltender interference reviewable. "I think the underlying fundamental here is that if youre going to go to video review in a given area, there is the expectation of certainty," said Mathieu Schneider, the NHLPAs special assistant to the executive director. "And its just not there. Its very difficult. The type of things that were talking about, a possible coachs challenge, are things that we might be able to be certain on. But theres still a ton of grey area." The Kings goal Saturday night that helped them build a 2-0 series lead was not the reason goaltender interference came up at the annual meeting, but its certainly a hotter topic because of it. The leagues general managers will discuss it Wednesday as well, but executive vice president and director of hockey operations Colin Campbell expects there to be more education on the subject in lieu of video review. "Education thats meant for our players and our referees regarding how to call goaltender interference in various situations, so to be more defined in that area -- if it doesnt take another step, meaning some sort of video review on it," Campbell said. Nothing was resolved in terms of defining what video review could include next season, something that the GMs could try to hash out later this week. There are many possibilities. "We talked about pucks over the glass, we talked about offside goals," Campbell said. "Then, it comes to the question if its an offside play: how much time? Is it five seconds? Is it 10 seconds? Change of possession? On the rush? Puck leaving the zone? What if a minor occurs during that time and a goal was scored but the play was offside? Does the minor come down? Does a double-minor come down? Does a major come down?" A coachs challenge system could be part of that process, requiring a timeout to use one. But coaches would not be able to request a review on goaltender interference. The competition committee made some more solid recommendations on rule changes that GMs discussed at their March meeting in Boca Raton, Fla., most of which are designed to create more goals, including a more lenient interpretation of kicked-in goals and moving the faceoff-circle hashmarks back from 3 1/2 to 5 feet to give offensive teams more room to operate. "Theres a feeling that, again, this can create more offence, that forwards on a won draw in the offensive zone will have more time to make plays, more room to make plays off winning draws," Schneider said. "And then on the flip side, its going to reduce the amount of scrums that we have off faceoffs separating those two players a little bit more." If approved by the GMs, board of governors and NHLPA executive committee like all of these changes must be in order to go into effect, on icing calls, the offending team wont be able to replace the original player taking the faceoff as a way of delaying. Jake Fraley Jersey. One violation would bring a warning and second would bring a minor penalty. Small overtime adjustments also got the green light from the group, which included GMs Ken Holland of the Detroit Red Wings, David Poile of the Nashville Predators, Don Maloney of the Phoenix Coyotes and Peter Chiarelli of the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers chairman Ed Snider and players Ron Hainsey, Kevin Shattenkirk, Daniel Winnik, Michel Cammalleri and Cory Schneider. Teams will change ends and the ice will get a dry scrape before the five-minute overtime in the regular season. The goal is to have more games decided in overtime and fewer in shootouts, with the long change like the second period representing the first step. "Historically in our league, more goals are scored in the second period than the first and third, and were hoping the long change would affect in a positive way goal scoring so we change ends in overtime now in the playoffs, so we thought why not," Campbell said. "We thought that was a silly reason to not change ends." One new recommendation is to make the trapezoid behind the nets four feet bigger to give goaltenders more room to handle the puck. Schneider has pointed to the safety of defencemen as the reason. "Weve been talking about the trapezoid for a couple of years now, and the idea of either eliminating the trapezoid or expanding it to give more relief to defencemen going back to retrieve pucks," Scheider said. "Goalies would have better opportunity to get their defencemen out of danger zones." And while there wasnt much of a consensus about video review, embellishment seems to be a different story. The next step is figuring out how to solve the issue. "We feel embellishment in the game is a real problem today," Campbell said. "We understand players try to draw penalties. We feel its out of control, and weve discussed another approach at embellishment, similar to the rule thats already in the rule book. But there would not be a game suspension attached to that, there would be a warning and fines." That could include fining coaches and organizations along with players, Campbell added. While that could help curb one problem that has been part of these playoffs, goalie interference remains an almost unsolvable issue. Even the Game 2 situation brought what Schneider called a "split room" on whether it should have counted or not. "Theres a lot of instances where you have two reasonable people looking at the same video and have two different interpretations, and goalie interference is certainly one of those," Schneider said. "I think the education process is whats going to be most important for the officials, for the players, and I think Colin alluded to, we want to maybe err on the side of the goalie more often. Well, thats the direction we have to give to the officials. "The education process is going to be key. And to have certain telltale signs." ' ' '