Bone Head Plays

In a game my senior year at Cherryville, I was on first and the batter hit a slow roller down the first base line. I took off for 2nd and somewhere between first and 2nd I could have sworn I heard the umpire yell foul ball. After sliding into 2nd, I took off trotting back towards first base and the first basemen met me about half way and tagged me out. He had fielded the ball in fair territory and tagged the bag for the out. Needless to say I got a piece of Coach Jones' mind on the way back to the dugout.

 

2 plays from 2009

I've got 2 for ya..

#1- my 2 hole hitter lays down a nice Base hit bunt on the 3rd baseline. However, the ball tipped off his thigh before rolling down the line. Also, we just this year cut out our baselines so the ball rolls foul - THEN BACK FAIR. Needless to say, he had stopped running due to the combination of it being off his leg and the rolling foul. Thrown out at first of course.

#2- my catcher is running from 1st (no courtesy runner because I only have 10 players). On a Hit and Run, he does not look in to see where the ball is hit. The batter hit a HIGH chopper towards 1st base and the pitcher, 1st baseman, and 2nd baseman all head towards it. I think the 1st baseman ended up fielding it and jogged to the bag to make the 1st out in the inning. The runner thought it must have been a popup and that he was doubled off since the 1st baseman casually jogged to the bag so he headed towards our 3rd base dugout. A rundown ensues and now we have 2 out, nobody on!

Lessons: Always run it out and look in to see contact on a hit and run. Otherwise you might end up like these 2 idiots.

 

bonehead

8 years ago in my first game as HC at a new school, we'd just sprinted on for pregame infield. In those days, my starting pitcher always stayed with me to feed me balls. It was one of those days just warm enough to make your palms sweat, especially considering the circumstances.....and i was a bit nervous. On the first ball I hit to LF, the fungo comes out of my hands, and leaves them in a direction directly in line with my SP's mouth. It, of course, strikes him barrel end in the mouth, and drops him like a sack of potatoes. My kids are shocked....assistant coach helps him off field, we do finish our infield, and I go to check on him. He has a busted, possibly broken nose, split and swollen lip, and bleeding on his tongue or somewhere inside his mouth.....
The kid is okay though, goes out and starts on the hill. The rest of team is still in shock and decides he hasn't had enough and helps us to giving up 5 unearned in the first. However, the kid settles down, actually throws a complete game, and we find our way to an 8-5 victory.


Needless to say, my starting pitcher no longer feeds the balls during infield and I use a lot of pine tar..................what a bonehead

 

Years ago when my younger brother , a catcher, was a hs sr. He's on 1st, and see's the pitcher go from the windup, so he takes of for 2nd and slides in safely. To his surprise, he see's a teamate of his already standing on the base. What the big dummy didn't realize, is that the reason the pitcher went from the windup was because the bases were loaded...

I actually saw this exact thing happen the other night in a hs game...however the runner was saved when the hitter fouled the pitch off !

 

Freshman year of college...

Guy on our team hit a single so our coach pinch runs for him. Bring in a guy that could run pretty well. So coach gives him the steal signal and the next pitch he takes off to second. Gets to second without a throw from the catcher. The SS turns to him and tells him there was a foul ball so our guy started walking back to first. The SS calls for the ball and tags him out halfway back to first and the runner had no clue what was going on. Our coach wasn't to happy about that, but it made for some good laughs.

 

Celebrating a little early

Our travel team was playing at Cooperstown Dreams Park a few years ago and we drew the prior nights' home run champion's team for our first game. It was a close game and we held them in check. A third-out throw to our first baseman was dropped and two runs scored, leaving us trailing 3-2. We were the home team and in our last at bat, our leadoff hitter tripled off the wall, but our next two hitters were unable to bring him in. Our cleanup hitter struck out swinging to end the game, but the catcher did not catch the ball cleanly. He retrieved the ball and fired it down to first for the last out.....only problem was the first baseman was sprinting to the mound to celebrate the win and the throw went down into the right field corner. Our runner on third scored to tie the game and they brought in the home run champion to pitch. He promptly walked three in a row and we won 4-3.

 

Saturday night: Belmont Abbey vs. Barton

College players should know better!
Let me set the stage for ya.
Bottom of the second, score tied 1-1, Belmont Abbey has a runner on 3rd (Roland Rodriquez).
Tyler McKenzie is batting for Belmont Abbey.
One out.
McKenzie hits a high pop-up in foul territory towards the Barton dugout.
Barton's catcher & pitcher both go after the ball, leaving home plate un-attended.
Every Barton fan in Fleming Stadium is yelling at the top of their lungs for somebody to cover home plate.
Sure enough, the catcher makes the catch.
Rodriquez, takes off for home & beats the Barton pitcher & 3rd baseman to the plate to give Abbey the 2-1 lead.
Baseball Brett was in attendance & was trying his best to get through the netting behind home plate to cover for Barton, but the netting was too tough.

 

Barton Bone Head Play Clarification

Karl is right. But, just wanted everyone to know that the pitcher was NOT Lil Grayben. Will not name the player (no need), but will say who it was not. Man, I feel better now. My son did NOT pitch too well in the 1 and 1/3 innings he was in against Belmont Abbey, but on a pop up the the catcher, I did see him cover home plate with a man on 3rd. I was so proud! See, standing beside Coach Wilkinson in the dug out and listening to him blow a gasket pays off!

My bone head play came in 1979 when I was playing 3rd base for the mighty Northampton County Rams against that other powerhouse, Bertie County Falcons, at night, at their place. My only high school night game in my career. Times were tough in Northampton County. Well, there were men on 1st and 2nd, 2 outs, and I took a sharp ground ball at 3rd. I fielded it like Brooks Robinson, said "I got it", stepped on 3rd, rolled the ball to the pitcher's mound, and headed to the dug out for my well deserved high fives. Turns out, no one was on 1st and it was not a force at 3rd. That may explain that "you're an idiot" look I got from Coach Parker!

Oops. My bad!

 

Sorry, Grayben

I should have clarified that Lil Grayben was not involved in this play whatsoever. Let's just say that there is at least one Wilson County high school that teaches pitchers what to do in that situation & leave it at that.

 

This one happened at a JUCO game I was scouting last year, and you may have to read it a couple times to understand:

Bases loaded, 1 out, chopper down the line to the 3B, he steps on the bag and thows across the diamond to the 1B, but the throw is high and pulls the 1B off the bag, and he cannot make the tag. The 1B paying attention, sees that there is a runner stopped b/w 3rd and home, he quickly throws the ball back over to the 3B and they run the guy home where he is taged out by the catcher. The defensive team flips the ball back to the mound and runs off the field.

Now for the fun part. They got the same guy out twice, runner from second was forced out at third and was just standing there by the bag when the 1B threw over, he really didn't get in a run down b/w the bases, just gave himself up.

What added insult to injury, the defense had to go back on the field after a 15 minute delay on a cold, windy Eastern NC night, and the pitcher proceeded to give up 5 straight hits.