Had a bit of fun with this rundown of Brett Gardner in the Yankees-Cubs game at Wrigley Field on Saturday. Officially I think it’s a 1-3-4-3-4-2-6 putout.
Based on a conversation I had elsewhere, I wonder if it’s possible to have a “pi” putout. Pi from memory is 3.14159265358979 and the digits allow for every position on the diamond to participate. Let’s see how that works:
Carlos Pena keeps the ball on a hidden ball trick without a balk being called (I think that’s possible, right?).
James Russell breaks to 2B to receive the throw from Pena.
Russell throws to Blake DeWitt covering 1B which was vacated by Pena.
DeWitt throws back to Russell at 2B.
Russell throws to Aramis Ramirez who dashed all the way to 1B to cover for DeWitt because Pena is off to the side picking his wedgie or something.
Ramirez then fires to Kosuke Fukudome, who ran in from RF to cover 2B.
Kosuke throws to Geovany Soto, now covering 1B.
Soto throws to Starlin Castro covering 2B.
Castro throws to Ramirez at 1B.
Ramirez to Pena, who decides to rejoin the play at 2B.
Pena back to Ramirez at 1B.
Ramirez now throws to Reed Johnson covering 2B.
Reed fires to Kosuke at 1B.
Kosuke fires to Alfonso Soriano, who covers 2B.
Soriano throws back to Kosuke at 1B, and Kosuke delivers a death touch to Brett Gardner, that squirrelly motherfucker.
That was fun. Knowing the Cubs and their fail at rundowns it might actually happen.
Comments
Great stuff, RC. If any team can do it, the Cubs can.
mb21Quote Reply
http://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/12007
MishQuote Reply
That was my opportunity to use “It might just happen” and I blew it.
No dinner.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
No breakfast either.
It’s “let’s see what happens” and there is also the less common “it just might work”.
SK unpluggedQuote Reply
[quote name=SK unplugged]No breakfast either.
It’s “let’s see what happens” and there is also the less common “it just might work”.[/quote]
RC meme fail.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I was thinking today that e might be more achievable. e = 2.71828183. So what I imagine is runner at third. Rami is looking up in the stands, momentarily forgetting he’s playing a baseball game, wondering why that guy is wearing a Royals shirt. They don’t play the Royals until next week, he’s thinking. Batter hits a hard line drive, konks Rami in the head. He’s down. He may be dead.
The runner breaks for home. Because the ball nailed Rami flush, it dribbles straight back to Soto. He holds it, waiting for the runner, who is halfway down and realizes his bad luck. Because Rami is down and possibly dead, with Castro at his side trying to get him to wake up, Soriano runs all the way in from left to cover 3rd just in time to send the runner scrambling the other way toward home. Back to the pitcher. The infield is just traumatized by Rami’s death, so Reed comes in to take the catch back, back to Soto, back to Reed, Pitcher, Reed, then Baker, finally makes it over to receive the catch from Reed and put the play out if it’s misery.
binkyQuote Reply
I guess Reed kept standing there because his back hurt too much to run.
binkyQuote Reply
I think “e” is a better rundown scenario. Though Rami does dive here and there, so instead of him being dead, let’s make it a separated shoulder like in 2009 and the play can continue as long as the baserunner is still in the rundown.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Also, the first baseman should be Pena in this scenario.
You get bonus points if you are able to simulate this in “The Show” and record it to Youtube.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Tried to get Rami to dive, and the system crashed. Probably a coincidence.
binkyQuote Reply
PS3 is fail!
Evidence:
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=16088577
Rice CubeQuote Reply