Batter Steals First, Making Baseball History

July 14, 2019 5:51 AM

Tony Thomas, an outfielder for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, took advantage of a new rule (currently being tested in the independent Atlantic League at the behest of Major League Baseball) allowing a batter to steal first on a wild pitch.
posted by Etrigan (18 comments total)

No catcher is going to scramble to the backstop to retrieve the ball to try and throw the runner out. Seems they should just let the batter take the base as in a hit batter without the artificial tension.
posted by Space Coyote at 6:03 AM on July 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

Catcher is already a hard job, this is making it a lot harder.
posted by Bee'sWing at 6:15 AM on July 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

I like the big delay between the catcher losing the ball and the batter running. I wonder if all the guys in the dugout were like "Dude, RUN!!" And he's like "Oh yeah that new rule!!" *runrunrun*
posted by Gray Duck at 7:02 AM on July 14, 2019 [4 favorites]

No catcher is going to scramble to the backstop to retrieve the ball to try and throw the runner out.

But isn't the old rule on a wild pitch that runners already on base can try to get to a new base, and the catcher can try to throw them out if they can get to the ball? I've seen runners on wild pitches being thrown out in the past, I'm nearly certain of it.
posted by hippybear at 7:15 AM on July 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

Passed balls too, looks like. Is the batter's box a safe zone of sorts? Otherwise, if a catcher catching a knuckleballer grabs an incoming pitch on one bounce, can he tag the hitter then?

There's something here that appeals to me, but not sure yet. On a wild pitch other runners get to go, so it seems odd for the batter to stand there like it didn't happen, or out of politeness.
posted by drowsy at 7:17 AM on July 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

Willson Contreras will legit throw out the first person who tries this against him if the rule ever makes it to MLB.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:24 AM on July 14, 2019

I'm sure batter remains safe if he doesn't leave the batter's box.

This could be looked at as making things just a bit harder for pitchers since a passed ball could allow a batter to reach.
posted by SemiSalt at 7:54 AM on July 14, 2019

Passed balls too, looks like. Is the batter's box a safe zone of sorts? Otherwise, if a catcher catching a knuckleballer grabs an incoming pitch on one bounce, can he tag the hitter then?

I'm pretty sure that a call of passed ball or wild pitch is made after the fact, like error or hit. It would be ridiculous for the batter to be tagged out for not running. And yes, runners on base commonly try to advance on wild pitches and passed balls. They usually succeed.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:29 AM on July 14, 2019

Here's a decent rundown from Fangraphs of some of the other Atlantic League experiments: MLB Is Testing Ideas in the Atlantic League

More from Deadspin on robo-umps.

And here's video of the first manager ejection of a coach (Frank Viola) arguing with the robo-ump's call.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:55 AM on July 14, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is a new rule?

Oh, I guess previously you could only do it if the uncaught pitch could have been a third strike.
posted by kafziel at 1:34 PM on July 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

It makes baseball history for allowing a player to steal first from home without a dropped third strike involved, but it isn't the first time someone stole first, Germany Schaefer did it back in 1908, but did it from second base.

The supposed first instance of Schaefer stealing first, according to Davy Jones, occurred in a game against Cleveland around 1908, with the exact date unknown. With a runner on third late in the game, Schaefer stole second hoping to draw a throw from the catcher so that the runner on third, Davy Jones, could try and steal home. Jones gave the following account of what happened next in The Glory of Their Times, by Larry Ritter:

So now we had men on second and third. Well, on the next pitch Schaefer yelled, ‘Let’s try it again!’ And with a blood-curdling shout he took off like a wild Indian back to first base, and dove in headfirst in a cloud of dust. He figured the catcher might throw to first — since he evidently wouldn’t throw to second — and then I would come home same as before. But nothing happened. Nothing at all. Everybody just stood there and watched Schaefer, with their mouths open, not knowing what the devil was going on.

The umpires were just as confused as everybody else. However, it turned out that at that time there wasn’t any rule against a guy going from second back to first, if that’s the way he wanted to play baseball, so they had to let it stand. So there we were, back where we started, with Schaefer on first and me on third. And on the next pitch, darned if he didn’t let out another war whoop and take off again for second base. By this time the Cleveland catcher evidently had enough, because he finally threw to second to get Schaefer, and when he did I took off for home and both of us were safe. Link

He did it again in 1911 and they changed the rule after that to making any attempt to go backwards on the bases an out.
posted by gusottertrout at 2:08 PM on July 14, 2019 [4 favorites]

Seems the same as scoring byes in cricket. Short simplified version: In cricket you can still run even if you don’t strike the ball, so if the bowler (pitcher) or more normally the keeper (catcher) mess up it can result in scoring runs.

If the ball touched the batter or their clothing (other than the hands, gloves, or bat) as it passed them they are called leg byes...even if it wasn’t the leg it touched (you can legitimately score leg byes by being hit in the head and it bouncing away...because well.....cricket)

You can also get the rare four byes score when the ball bounces down to the boundary, or the almost mythical six byes - the functional equivalent of the pitcher scoring a home run for the batting team by them basically pitching out of the stadium, possibly by it bouncing off the batter’s helmet as they duck a legitimate pitch as an example

Or the fielding team cock up so badly they manage to let the batting team score seven runs by combining leg byes and overthrows. Which would be kind of like the pitcher scoring a bases loaded home run for the batting team, AND then one more run being added on top just to rub it in a little more because the fielding team collectively suck.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:25 PM on July 14, 2019

Anyone who has ever played pee-wee league knows the 3rd strike wild pitch rule, because that's how like 90% of the kids reach first base with a young and questionable catcher and pitcher combination, combined with a catcher who probably can barely even throw the ball far enough to reach first base.
posted by The_Vegetables at 6:40 AM on July 15, 2019

Anyone who has ever played pee-wee league knows the 3rd strike wild pitch rule, because that's how like 90% of the kids reach first base with a young and questionable catcher and pitcher combination, combined with a catcher who probably can barely even throw the ball far enough to reach first base.

And if you were a really observant batter you'd run to first and keep going to second.
posted by mmascolino at 4:27 PM on July 15, 2019

Baseball prescriptivism: this really isn't stealing a base.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:14 PM on July 17, 2019

It's scored as a fielder's choice, which seems like they didn't want to call it a "steal" but didn't want to create a new category either.
posted by Etrigan at 8:23 AM on July 18, 2019

Turns out not all Atlantic players are necessarily on board with the new rules. The July 14 New Britain Bees vs Somerset Patriots game, the Bees' leadoff hitter straight up refused to advance on a wild pitch, and was applauded from the Patriots dugout.
posted by zamboni at 10:06 PM on July 21, 2019

Interesting blog post on the history of the dropped third strike rule.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:02 PM on July 23, 2019