Yes the Ty Cobb style slides (trying to injure) are not common, but guys frequently slide into defensive players to break up double-plays. It happened on the play I was complaining about. Nobody was hurt THAT time but it happens a lot I'm sure given 162 games/year.
I Googled "injured breaking up double play" and there's 5 players mentioned on the first page, no incident older than 2012.
Here's Jacoby Ellsbury this year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWV7uRtmk0c
According to this
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...42700&c_id=mlb all the player has to do is make an attempt to touch 2B when breaking up a double play.
I suggest a comprimise of sorts. It should be legal to break up the play but if you don't touch the base, you should be ejected. AND, the defensive player would actually have to touch the base and the basesball at the same time, EVERYTIME!!!! This way you would eliminate or strongly discourage going way outside the basepath to injure someone while preserving the fundamentals/integrity of the game.