Boneheaded Baserunners

Recently, I was watching Cardinals closer Jason Isringhausen stuggle through another late-game situation (Saturday, May 27th), only to be bailed out when catcher Yadier Molina picked San Diego Padre Brian Giles off 1st. There were runners on 1st and 2nd, so Giles wasn't going anywhere, and he got caught too far off 1st and Molina picked him off for the last out of the game. Honestly, I don't know what to say because it was such a stupid play. Perhaps, Giles didn't think Molina would try to pick him off, or maybe he wasn't thinking about it and he wanted to have a large secondary lead in case he needed to score on a ball in the gap. Either way, Giles was the go-ahead run ... his run is only important if the tying run (Mike Cameron, on second) score first. If Giles got thrown out at the plate trying to score on a Josh Bard (the batter in the incident) double, fine. The game will be headed to extra innings tied. But, Giles dropped the ball and cost his team the game. Plus, it was a horrible end to the game as a viewer. It's too bad Albert Pujols didn't drop the ball.

Even more curious, in my opinion, was the inability of Johnny Damon to advance from 2nd to 3rd on a flyout to right field in a game recently. On the same play, someone slower (I think Miguel Cairo) scored from 3rd. There are 90 feet between successive bases. That's 90 between home and 1st, 1st and 2nd, 2nd and 3rd, 3rd and home. So, presumably, it should take less time for Damon to get from 2nd to 3rd than for Cairo to race from 3rd to home. Thinking about it now, the right fielder probably had a shorter throw to 3rd than to home, but not so much different that it didn't make sense for Damon not to advance - other than that Damon is a self-professed "idiot". Roy agreed to look at where a right fielder would have to be to have a longer throw to 3rd than to home, so hopefully we will see the result of such an analysis soon. But, thinking about it now, 3rd and home are 90 feet apart, as we've already established. The right field line and the left field line are orthogonal. Thus, if you catch the ball on the RF line, it's a shorter throw to home than to 3rd. The magic point occurs when you are 45 feet from the RF line. Then, you have the same distance to each of the two stations ... that's 45 feet on an imaginary line perpendicular to the RF line ... or parallel to the LF line. Does that make sense? I can do a diagram if someone would like. My wife understands, so you should too!

If there had been one out already when the fly ball was hit, I would be ok with Damon staying at 2nd. However, the bases were loaded with no one out. So, if Damon had advanced, he would have been at 3rd with one out. It's common knowledge that you don't make the 1st or 3rd out at 3rd, but you try to get there with 1 out. There are a lot of ways to score from 3rd with one out, including the sacrifice fly, which is the play that scored Cairo. As it turned out, Alex Rodriguez grounded into a double play, which he could have done just as easily with runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. However, he may have been looking to just hit a fly ball with a runner on 3rd and one out, rather than looking for a base hit ... so, the Yankees may have given up a run, or even a big inning by not having Damon advance on the sacrifice fly. In that regard, I'm in favor of Damon not advancing. I hope he continues to make similarly boneheaded plays in the future, because the Yankees are one of my most hated teams. I just thought I'd bring attention to it because it isn't an intelligent play, no matter how you look at it. Keep up the good work Johnny!