Runners at 2nd and 3rd Offensive Play...

[jbolt_2000]

Here is another one I saw at the 10u tourny over this weekend...
You are on offense with runners at second and third. You call the play to have the runner at second act like he is stealing. The pitch is thrown, the runner at second goes, you yell at him to go back but he doesn't quite hear you right away. He runs back to second. The catcher gets confused and throws to second base thinking the easy out when the runner goes back. As soon as the ball is released towards second, the runner at third runs home for the score. The ball is then thrown back to home to get the runner and the guy at second has a clear patch to third.

I saw this done once, over this weekend, with great effectiveness. The idea was to cause as much confusion for the defense so that the ball is thrown all over the place or misplayed. It worked and the team scored a run and advanced the runner to third.

I heard that there was a name for this play but did not remember the name. What is this called? What are some rules to this play (i.e. should only be done with no outs, 1 out etc)? And, are there any other plays like this that are used effectively?

[wogdoggy]

Here is another one I saw at the 10u tourny over this weekend...
You are on offense with runners at second and third. You call the play to have the runner at second act like he is stealing. The pitch is thrown, the runner at second goes, you yell at him to go back but he doesn't quite hear you right away. He runs back to second. The catcher gets confused and throws to second base thinking the easy out when the runner goes back. As soon as the ball is released towards second, the runner at third runs home for the score. The ball is then thrown back to home to get the runner and the guy at second has a clear patch to third.

I saw this done once, over this weekend, with great effectiveness. The idea was to cause as much confusion for the defense so that the ball is thrown all over the place or misplayed. It worked and the team scored a run and advanced the runner to third.

I heard that there was a name for this play but did not remember the name. What is this called? What are some rules to this play (i.e. should only be done with no outs, 1 out etc)? And, are there any other plays like this that are used effectively?

10 u says it all....enjoy it while you can

[Baseball gLove]

This happens in high school ball too, especially with weak armed catchers behind the plate. Most recently I watched this play out on a 1st and 3rd where the runner on 1st "accidentally" wandered a little to far from 1st. The runner on 3rd scored.

[jbolt_2000]

10 u says it all....enjoy it while you can

Well, thats exactly what I thought too. I coach a little league time and was watching my nephew in his tourny. I thought, wow - if they can get away with that here, I can probably run that every game and score.

Does anyone know the name of this play? I was told there was a name for it, but forgot.

[wogdoggy]

This happens in high school ball too, especially with weak armed catchers behind the plate. Most recently I watched this play out on a 1st and 3rd where the runner on 1st "accidentally" wandered a little to far from 1st. The runner on 3rd scored.

runners on second and third? what are you STEALING from second base?

[Samricky]

runners on second and third? what are you STEALING from second base?

He's basically stealing home, because as soon as the catcher throws the ball to the 2B/SS, his runner takes off from 3rd.

[Baseball gLove]

runners on second and third? what are you STEALING from second base?

A stupid throw from the catcher.

[glovemedic]

You are on offense with runners at second and third. You call the play to have the runner at second act like he is stealing....
I saw this done once, over this weekend, with great effectiveness. The idea was to cause as much confusion for the defense so that the ball is thrown all over the place or misplayed....

I heard that there was a name for this play but did not remember the name. What is this called? What are some rules to this play

Its called bush........the daddy coaching 3rd base is into scoring all the runs he can rather than teaching the kids how to play fundamentally sound baseball. As the kids get toward 16, the rule they enforce is to knock the next batter down and get back to playing ball. As Wogdog said "its 10U, enjoy it while it lasts".

[jbolt_2000]

Its called bush........the daddy coaching 3rd base is into scoring all the runs he can rather than teaching the kids how to play fundamentally sound baseball. As the kids get toward 16, the rule they enforce is to knock the next batter down and get back to playing ball. As Wogdog said "its 10U, enjoy it while it lasts".

Obviously this would not work with the higher level talent.
Are you saying that this is wrong to do? I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing. I see it more as taking advantage of the situation. I would also tell my runner at third to steal home if the catcher is walking to the backstop to pick up his mask and the pitcher is walking to the mound not paying attention.
Of course this is on a limited basis. I wouldn't do it if we were up by 10 runs already. But in a close game, why not?

[jbolt_2000]

He's basically stealing home, because as soon as the catcher throws the ball to the 2B/SS, his runner takes off from 3rd.

Exactly. It would be a fake steal to third, from second, to confuse the catcher. As soon as the ball is thrown the actual steal is from third to home.

[jbolt_2000]

Its called bush........the daddy coaching 3rd base is into scoring all the runs he can rather than teaching the kids how to play fundamentally sound baseball. As the kids get toward 16, the rule they enforce is to knock the next batter down and get back to playing ball. As Wogdog said "its 10U, enjoy it while it lasts".

Another thing - the team I saw do this was a 10u travel team with lots of talent, much more then I'm used to with my Little League teams. The coaches are all former AAA and College players. They've been around. I would think that they do this as a strategic play and not just as a "daddy" trying to score the most runs.

I get from your post that you don't like this play but I guess I am trying to justify it from a different angle, not just to score runs.

[hellborn]

In a critical SP game, the opposing team got a hit and the winning run was rounding 3B in the 9th with one out. The ball came into our pitcher and everybody held up except for the guy who just got the hit, who rounded 1B way too wide. The P snapped the ball to me at 1st and I slapped a tag on the runner and moved to throw home to get the third out or just make the runner on 3rd hold. The runner at first cleverly tackled me at this point and held my arms until the runner scored, and we lost.
We felt that there was a slight problem with this tactic, but the umps just wanted to get home and blew us off. I guess that we wished that we had held the ball, but that guy was not scoring barring the dirty play at first or a wild throw somewhere. Being able to keep a runner on 3B from scoring with 2 outs to get is far from an easy thing in slow pitch, of course.
What do you guys think? Was this a fair play by our opponents?

[jbolt_2000]

In a critical SP game, the opposing team got a hit and the winning run was rounding 3B in the 9th with one out. The ball came into our pitcher and everybody held up except for the guy who just got the hit, who rounded 1B way too wide. The P snapped the ball to me at 1st and I slapped a tag on the runner and moved to throw home to get the third out or just make the runner on 3rd hold. The runner at first cleverly tackled me at this point and held my arms until the runner scored, and we lost.
We felt that there was a slight problem with this tactic, but the umps just wanted to get home and blew us off. I guess that we wished that we had held the ball, but that guy was not scoring barring the dirty play at first or a wild throw somewhere. Being able to keep a runner on 3B from scoring with 2 outs to get is far from an easy thing in slow pitch, of course.
What do you guys think? Was this a fair play by our opponents?

If you tagged him out he would be out and anything he does afterwards would be considered obstuction or interference I would think. So in this context I would say it is a dirty play.

The play I refer to is more of making the other team slip up and taking advantage of the mistake.

[glovemedic]

I get from your post that you don't like this play but I guess I am trying to justify it from a different angle, not just to score runs.

My bad, sometimes I should tape my fingers up and think first before I type a hasty response. I have just seen so much of this stuff at tournaments I want to cry (or something else) sometimes. I am looking forward to the day when my kid is old enough that he puts on his cleats to play ball and I can sit in the bleachers and watch a well executed ball game without any of the monkey business that prevades much of youth baseball. A friend of mine (ex college player) coaches a 16U team that bears a slight resemblance to a minor league team and it is cool to watch the kids play ball with very little involvment from the bleachers. To me the game really gets fun to watch when you know the kids are going to turn the play ~90% of the time and the runners on base know they are going to get picked if they don't pay attention 100% of the time.

My son is playing 11U ball this year and we have hired a couple ex-college players to coach. I am thrilled because they are teaching the kids how to play baseball and be successful at a higher level of competition rather than worrying about the win-loss records. I am convinced that the winning takes care of itself once the players master the fundamentals of throwing, catching, and hitting. And even though some of our kids have been playing travel ball for the last 3 years there is still a lot of work to do. At this point, I will consider our program successful if we have >70% of our roster still playing ball as 16Us.

Have an awesome season and have fun

[TG Coach]

Its called bush........the daddy coaching 3rd base is into scoring all the runs he can rather than teaching the kids how to play fundamentally sound baseball. As the kids get toward 16, the rule they enforce is to knock the next batter down and get back to playing ball. As Wogdog said "its 10U, enjoy it while it lasts".

Thank you! In the time it takes to teach trick plays the coaches could be working on improving the player's fundamentals. These are the teams that trophy hunt rather than play against the best possible competition. Then they post on their website they've won five consecutive tournaments by a score of 360-14. BFD! The kids get older and can't play the game. I'd rather my team play up against difficult competition than play this way.