
‘Skunk in the outfield’ - keehun
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20294816/skunk-outfield-how-most-epic-trick-play-history-broke-baseball
======
nodesocket
These sort of quirks is why I love baseball. The infield fly rule[1] was
created to prevent players from intentionally dropping balls to get a double
play.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infield_fly_rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infield_fly_rule)

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formula1
Cute story!

\- a guy on first and third \- guy on first walks far into the outfield to
make chasing him awkward \- defending team doesn't know what to do, pitcher is
scared to give it to second base because he doesn't think he can throw home \-
eventually pitcher does and everything goes back to normal

There was also an opportunity where the pitcher and second basemen could have
huddled so that nobody knew who had the ball, then walk toward each player.

This seems to be a story about game theory and playing with imperfection

~~~
valuearb
And the best part is that opposing players and coaches still felt insulted and
angry years later that the tricksters weren't playing "the right way".

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tbenst
Misleading reporting. The author truncated the actual MLB rule 7.08a, which
reads in full:

    
    
        7.08 Any runner is out when—
    
        (a) (1) He runs more than three feet away from his base path to avoid being tagged
        unless his action is to avoid interference with a fielder fielding a batted ball. A
        runner’s base path is established when the tag attempt occurs and is a straight
        line from the runner to the base he is attempting to reach safely; or
        (2) after touching first base, he leaves the base path, obviously abandoning his
        effort to touch the next base;

By (2), the runner obviously abandoned his effort to touch the next base after
touching first base and should have been ruled out.

[http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2012/Official_Baseball_Rul...](http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/y2012/Official_Baseball_Rules.pdf)

~~~
BoringCode
Misleading comment.

7.08 (a) 2 specifically applies to the scenario like in this comment:

> Rule 7.08(a) Comment: Any runner after reaching first base who leaves the
> base path heading for his dugout or his position believing that there is no
> further play, may be declared out if the umpire judges the act of the runner
> to be considered abandoning his efforts to run the bases. Even though an out
> is called, the ball remains in play in regard to any other runner.

Essentially the runner has to obviously abandon his attempt to reach the next
base. In the scenario outlined in the article the runner is still advancing to
the next base, trying to draw a throw. According to your interpretation, any
runner taking a lead without specifically advancing should be out, which is
incorrect.

When it comes to judgement calls like this it all comes down to the umpire.
Many umpires have noted[1] that this is a legal play. And it was ruled as such
in the article's example. Calling it "misleading reporting" is a smear on a
very well written story about an edge case that isn't clear cut.

(I will note that is very easy for the offense to execute incorrectly and for
the umpires to get it wrong. For example:
[https://youtu.be/WnI4KlUNf38](https://youtu.be/WnI4KlUNf38))

[1]
[http://www.austinumpires.org/skunkplay.html](http://www.austinumpires.org/skunkplay.html)

~~~
tbenst
I don't think the comment limits the meaning of abandonment, but rather gives
an interpretation for a specific circumstance. Here's some umpires debating
this rule:
[http://www.umpire.org/vb/showthread.php?s=2e5e11d3b28b94683f...](http://www.umpire.org/vb/showthread.php?s=2e5e11d3b28b94683f83271dd5505e3f&t=13929&page=3)

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koala_man
Can someone explain this to a European?

I tried reading through it, but I spent more time on Wikipedia baseball pages
than the actual article.

~~~
Theodores
That is funny, I was hoping someone from the rest-of-the-world would ask this.

It seems that this 'sport' (and other U.S. 'sports') is one of those uniquely
American things like 'customary units', tea drinking and non-standard
spellings where British-ness has to be eradicated. The whole point of the game
is that the rest of the world (particularly British people) just don't get it.
Life is too short to bother knowing the rules to these U.S. only 'sports',
unless you are working with Americans there is no conversation value
whatsoever in knowing all those stats that U.S. 'sports' fans obsess over.

~~~
xxXXxx-
This is an extremely ignorant and needlessly mean comment. Baseball is known
as "America's pastime," however, it's not _just_ an American sport; its also
popular in Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Korea, and Japan. One
MLB team is currently located outside the US and a second used to be. There
are professional leagues in many countries outside of North America. A quarter
of MLB players were born outside the 50 States [1] Not only that, it traces
it's history back to a British game (Rounders).

Plus the British are more know for tea drinking than Americans.

For me, I absolutely love "trick plays," they are great and are part of what
makes baseball fun to watch. Fake tags, fake throws, the hidden ball trick,
outfielders "deking" that the lost the ball in the sun, or "deking" that they
are going to catch a ball. Those are some of my favorite plays. I completely
disagree when people call them Bush League plays, if that's your opinion you
might as well call advancing on an errant throw, taking first on a dropped
third strike, or scoring on a wild pitch Bush League as well.

[1] [http://m.mlb.com/news/article/116591920/opening-day-
rosters-...](http://m.mlb.com/news/article/116591920/opening-day-rosters-
feature-230-players-born-outside-the-us/)

~~~
Theodores
Sometimes an automotive analogy helps. In theory you could say 'Nascar' or
'IndyCar' has an international following and you could cite how some drivers
come from outside of the USA to participate. You could even go through the
history books and find cars built outside the USA and raced around banked
ovals. But no, the rest of the world has F1, the WRC and plenty of other
motorsports governed by the FIA and participated in internationally. For the
rest of the world there is zero interest in knowing the ins and outs of
whatever goes on in U.S. motorsport, it is a waste of time bothering to know.

Regarding tea, Americans don't drink it, not like the British do, my point
being that this is one of those anti-British things going back to something
that happened in Boston, to do with not wanting to pay taxes to the King.

Given the downvotes I had to check if I had misread 'baseball' for
'basketball', but I hadn't. You are kidding yourself if you believe baseball
has a big international following. I also don't believe anyone in America
knows anything about Japanese baseball or whatever is going on in the Korean
game in any greater depth than what a Manchester United fan knows about what
is going on in women's football. The IOC don't think that baseball matters
although I am sure it will feature in the Olympics if the host nation is one
of the few countries you cite that do play the game.

~~~
xxXXxx-
I fail to understand what the average American's knowledge of Japanese
baseball has anything to do with the popularity of baseball in Japan.

~~~
BoringCode
Don't bother, this poster is just trolling and moving the goal posts is one
method to do so. You could bring up how spirited and competitive the World
Baseball Classic was. How it featured teams from all over the world and was
watched and understood by fans all over the world.

Or how there are multiple professional leagues on multiple continents. Each
with their own followings and eccentricities.

You could also point out that baseball is in fact back in the Olympics.
Precisely because it now has an international following.

But none of that matters. Because this poster is in a race to prove how they
are more euro-centric than Americans are USA-centric.

~~~
xxXXxx-
Baseball game in Japan, FYI:
[https://youtu.be/qL87Tq4QKqI](https://youtu.be/qL87Tq4QKqI)

