Okay, so we've got another softball post coming here. Trust me, I don't plan on dwelling on the details of my softball season for the rest of the summer, but the last two games have been the most interesting sports-related happenings in my life lately.
Anyhow, last night's game was kind of depressing, because we didn't hit well as a team (and I was terrible individually), and we lost both games of the doubleheader. However, I was a part of 2 of the craziest plays I've ever been involved in while I was playing in the field, and they both happened within a couple innings of each other in the 2nd game, and I was playing at two different positions in the field for each one.
The first play came while I was catching. Now, catching in slow pitch softball is, generally, a very boring ordeal. You kneel behind the plate, you catch the pitches that the batters don't swing at, and you toss them back to the pitcher. There's relatively little action at the plate in slow pitch, and when it comes, it's often not very good, like the rare foul tip that comes backwards right at your head. That being said, we have some outfielders that have very good arms by the standards of church league softball, and they don't hesitate to try and make a play at the plate, especially when I'm catching. They like it when I'm back there, because sometimes they aren't the most accurate, and I'm very good at keeping an errant throw from becoming even worse. I also have a pretty good glove, and I'm generally fearless about a runner bearing down on me (probably too fearless, really), so if they do make a good throw, they know there's a very high probability of me making the catch and the tag. Anyhow, in this particular inning, there was a ball hit through the infield to right-center. The runner on second tried to score, and our right-centerfielder made a perfect one hop throw that I fielded cleanly, well ahead of the incoming runner. As I, instinctively, went down to tag him, he jumped over the top of me. This is actually a very intelligent play, since he's going up as I'm moving down, but I think it should be illegal, because it highly dangerous to both the catcher, and the runner. Catchers have been kicked in the head before, and runners have been tripped up and done face plants. In fact, it actually might be illegal, because I think by rule you're supposed to surrender or slide in that situation, but I'm not 100% sure of the rule, and I don't know that I remember ever seeing an ump calling someone out on those grounds. Anyhow, nothing tragic happened here, he got over top of me relatively cleanly, but I did manage to get my glove up and tag him. He didn't think I got him, and it's very possible he didn't feel it, because I may have just ticked his shorts, but I definitely felt something brush my glove as he went by. And fortunately, the umpire either saw it, or just gave me the benefit of the doubt since the ball beat the runner, like some umps do, and he called him out.
A couple innings later, I was out at second base, which is where I had played the first game and where I play most of the time these days. I'm generally adept at fielding ground balls, and pretty much always have been. The weak link in my fielding prowess in the infield has always been the pop-up hit back over my head. I'm getting much better with them, but I'm still not comfortable with them. I'm most comfortable with ones that are looped off to my left and that I know immediately I have to really run for. Well, there was one of those hit, and I took off after it. I actually tracked it quickly enough that I was able to call for it because I knew I could get to it, but I was still on the run. I stretched out the glove, the ball goes in, but to my horror, it squirted back out and popped up a bit. Keeping my eye on it all the way, I took another shot with the glove, but wasn't quick enough and it hit off the heel of the glove, knocking it back towards me. At this point, I was falling forward, and I desperately grabbed for the ball with my bare hand and clutched it to my chest. I hit the ground, ball pressed firmly to my chest, and ended up rolling over, on top of the ball. As soon as I completed the roll and got to my back, I held the ball up above me, knowing that I made the catch, and praying that the umpire, who wouldn't have been able to see the ball during the roll, saw it the same way. Thankfully, he did! That, my friends, is how you take a moderately difficult play and turn it into a webgem.
I'm sure that was intensely boring to all of you, but thank you for your time anyhow.
2 months ago
12 comments:
LOL
Scott, I would've loved to see both of those plays!
That, my friends, is how you take a moderately difficult play and turn it into a webgem.
I sometimes think that baseball players are rated on their fielding primarily by the number of plays that they make appear difficult. An outfielder making a sliding grab of a ball that a faster outfielder would have routinely gloved down, etc.
2 time Gold Glove winner Derek Jeter agrees with you...
Seriously though, it does often happen, at least among fans, announcers, etc. Defense is very difficult to judge objectively, or at least to assess quickly, so the "wow" factor definitely comes into play when developing a reputation. Then of course, there are the players who have the "wow" factor and also have the ridiculous range, like Andruw Jones circa 2000.
As a fellow Twin Shores catcher, I can attest that while there is a rule in our league that you should either slide or surrender when there is a play at the plate, the umpires NEVER call it.
I have been bumped, rammed, and and one time had my clock cleaned and there has yet to be an umpire to call the runner out for not avoiding contact. It can be pretty scary for that one play every 6 or 7 games...
well done, Scott. apparently the "softball gods" were smiling at you for the second game. :) hehe.
Had they been truly smiling on me, they would have kept the ball in my glove on the first try on the second play.
I think it was more like they were playfully hazing me.
Oh, and I should add that the events of Thursday's game finally pushed me to go out and buy a new glove.
The second play was just the latest incident of me failing to field a ball cleanly after getting it squarely in the glove. I've had a lot of that going on through my first 6 games this year, and I'm typically pretty sure-handed.
While I don't wish to fully "blame" the glove for these mistakes, I do believe it was a contributing factor. I left my good glove, which was only about 2-3 years old, behind after a game late last year, and it wandered off, never to return. That sent me back to my backup glove, which is a holdover from Little League days. It's almost too short for softball (if you look at glove buying guide's, it's the minimum length they recommend), and as old as it is, it's very, very loose. If it were a bigger glove with a deeper pocket, the looseness might actually be an advantage, but as it is, it's been problematic.
So, at least for the next few weeks, I can blame drops on breaking in the new glove :)
Certainly, assessment of fielding has a great deal of subjectivity (as I was arguing), but I've never been convinced that the consensus about Jeter is wrong. I freely grant that he does pretty poorly in every statistical fielding assessment yet invented, but I'm still holding out for the possibility that there is an unadjusted-for illusion working against Jeter there. No argument about Andruw Jones though. Best defensive center fielder I've ever seen and his statistical assessments are eye-popping.
Just for fun, here's my all-time all-defense team:
C - Johnny Bench or possibly Ivan Rodriguez (the best statistics belong to Gary Carter, who was good, but I think both Bench and Rodriguez were better)
1B - Keith Hernandez
2B - Bill Mazeroski (best defensive statistics and reputation of any player at any position ever)
3B - Brooks Robinson
SS - Ozzie Smith
LF - Who knows? Carl Yastrzemski, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Minnie Minoso, Barry Bonds, and possibly Rickey Henderson. I guess I'll go with Yaz who probably wouldn't have been a great fielder anywhere else, but played the Green Monster incredibly well. Barry Bonds would have been a center fielder in his prime had Andy Van Slyke not joined the Pirates, so we can make a case for him. Even the best left fielder probably doesn't compare favorably to a mediocre center fielder, so perhaps I should have said "Who cares?" instead of "Who knows?"
CF - Andruw Jones, though old-timers will think I'm nuts for giving it to him over Willie Mays.
RF - Roberto Clemente
:D i've considered getting a new glove as well. i'm sure mine is the minimum recommended length as well. however, i decided to invest in an another form of equipment.. sliding shorts. hmmm... which i have yet to truly take advantage of. :D
Sliding shorts eh?
I understand, I'm one of the relatively few guys in our league who wears baseball pants to play. I like to dive for balls and slide when beneficial, and I don't like tearing up my knees and legs.
Although, I still did tear up my one knee pretty good because apparently I forgot how to slide over the offseason and executed an incredibly poor one in my first attempt this year.
The whole sliding rule in our league is, and always has been a joke, simply because it's never EVER enforced. I've got a catcher on the DL already this season with a shoulder injury because a guy didn't slide and ran right into him.
As far as the leap goes, I will back you up in that the runner was out. I saw you tag him, no question there. And I know he was not trying to do you any damage as well. If you happened to notice the large brace on his leg, you might get an inkling as to why he didn't slide. Not an excuse, just a thought. It helps that he can jump 5 feet in the air!
The, ahem, 'catch' at second, however... :)
Oh, absolutely, I don't think the runner did anything "wrong" or malicious. He was just trying to avoid the tag. I don't think that sort of attempt should be allowed, but he was clearly just taking what he thought was his best shot at being safe was.
As for the play at 2nd, I probably wouldn't have said anything had the ump not ruled it a catch, but I definitely had the ball pinned and controlled against me as I hit the ground and rolled. Given that I was probably the only person who was actually in position to see what was going on at that point though, I couldn't have faulted the ump (or anyone else) for assuming the ball hit the ground.
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