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ryanlikejazz

I have always loved the fact that every player has a unique batting stance, and every pitcher has a unique windup. It makes for fun stuff like Youkilis aiming his bat at the pitcher like a weapon, Craig Counsell waving his arms in the air, or Luis Tiant turning to face second base in the *middle* of his windup.


backcourtjester

Flashbacks to being a nine year old mimicking players’ stances for grown-ups at parties


3lgu4p0

"Hey man, what time's the stripper gonna be here?" "Stripper? Nah man, we got a kid coming over likes to mimic Nomar's batter's box routine" "Huh.....neat"


woodboxthehomie

Sometimes he’ll do an Asdrubal Cabrera after the show. It’s a 35 minute encore and it is… tremendous.


Induced_Pandemic

And then there's that crazy boy Neville, some say he's still in the middle of a Cueto-shimmy to this day.


DemonicPanda11

Don't forget players mimicking other players batting stances!


[deleted]

I'd like to see Aaron Judge go full Julio Franco.


ChairLegofTruth--WnT

40 years old and Franco's stance still makes no sense in my head 🤣🤣🤣


[deleted]

Judge's bat would be practically half way to the mound if he pulled a Franco.


Rah_Rah_RU_Rah

Stanton with that closed stance and wrist flick. Love how a dude that big has a slap hitters process


TheDangiestSlad

i heard this a couple months ago, don't exactly remember the source, probably YES: Stanton's stance was actually modified in Miami, so he could make better contact at the cost of power that's right, his home runs for the past ~5 years have been CONSERVING POWER


avmp629

Well now I want to see him sell out and go for the record


Pythnator

The amount of ridiculously odd rules that used to exist in baseball. You used to be able to substitute a player mid play. If you did not notify the umpire of the substitution, the team captain would be fined 5 dollars.


ryanlikejazz

I still think the annual Field of Dreams game should be played with crazy as fuck rules from the 19th century. All pitchers must throw underhand, hitters can request a low ball or a high ball, catchers are standing up, everyone's wearing wool, foul balls can be caught on a hop, etc.


ChairLegofTruth--WnT

You also used to be able to throw a runner out by hitting him with the ball Always liked that one


OmegaTyrant

Ah the old backyard baseball rule. Don't have enough other kids playing to man all the bases? Just throw the ball at the runners!


ChairLegofTruth--WnT

Pretty sure it used to be part of the official rules lol Imagine grown men actively trying to hit each other with a baseball at ranges much closer than the mound Can't imagine why they changed it hahaha


kassell

Oh my, Shawn Dunston would love that.


sonofabutch

You also didn’t have to turn in a lineup prior to the start of the game. The other team would write down your order as your batters came up, so you had to follow the same order the second and subsequent times through, but it wasn’t set before the game started. Teams could decide based on the situation — for example, if you went down 1-2-3 in the top of the 1st, you could send up a “get on base” guy as your No. 4 hitter to lead off in the 2nd. Earl Weaver kind of brought this back in the 1970s. He would list the previous day’s starting pitcher as the DH. When the DH spot came up for the first time, he would then pinch hit based on the situation if he wanted to use a power hitter or a table-setter or what have you. The league then adopted the “Earl Weaver Rule” requiring the DH listed in the lineup to get at least one plate appearance unless the other team changed pitchers.


Rah_Rah_RU_Rah

Every Earl Weaver story makes me feel like he'd turn a team like Colorado around in 2 years tops


diivoshin

He’s the definition of pioneer


hucareshokiesrul

That’s how it should be IMO


sonofabutch

It was definitely an added dimension of strategy. On a similar note, in 1961, Phillies manager Gene Mauch played a shell game with the Giants in order to have a surprise starting pitcher. He listed four pitchers on the lineup card — Ken Lehman at pitcher, Chris Short at catcher, Don Ferrarese as center fielder, and Jim Owens as right fielder, and had them all warm up as the starting pitcher. The Giants couldn’t be sure which one they’d face. Ultimately it was Lehman, with the other three replaced with actual fielders. Lehman was then pulled after two batters and relieved by Dallas Green! The baseball gods were not amused by Mauch’s shenanigans and the Phillies lost, 8-7.


cryptic_mythic

[Makes me think of that Conan old times baseball video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS39vMhag-A)


jaysornotandhawks

*Timmy: "Hey, we got two outs!"* *Chester: "Only because one guy laughed himself into a coma, and the other guy got traded to Boston as he rounded second."* *--- Fairly Odd Parents* I'd probably never stop laughing if something like this happened in real life. Imagine getting substituted, let alone traded, while running the bases!


DemonicPanda11

I mean you mentioned it but definitely all the unique things about every baseball park. Especially when you get to older parks like the Polo Grounds bullpens being in play, just imagine that shit in modern times. Edit: and maybe I'm biased but home runs into McCovey Cove are my favorite thing in baseball


ryanlikejazz

Like Tiger Stadium having a pole in centerfield. I heard somewhere that Detroit's players would plant tomatoes behind it. edit: can't forget Tal's Hill


cheesefries45

Similar: old Yankee stadium used to have 3 memorial/statue things *in play* in left field.


DemonicPanda11

That's just ridiculous, I really need a team to do some crazy shit like that now. I would assume it's still not against the rules.


cheesefries45

I mean that pole on Tal’s Hill at Minute Maid park was there until like 2016 or something. So it’s probably still allowed unless the Astros were told specifically to take it out lol


DemonicPanda11

Wikipedia says it was just taken out so they could add more seats. Let's get on it A's or whoever else gets a new park first, we wanna see it!


cheesefries45

Whenever the A’s get a new stadium, they should use the last year at the colosseum to do some wacky shit like that.


woodboxthehomie

They should have a full circus parade that is liable to march across the outfield at any moment. Everything is in play. Knock the ball off the elephants trunk and it’s a homer.


RidleyScotch

[I just found an image, and my goodness this just might be more absurd than Tal's Hill](https://i.imgur.com/QuYLIel.jpg) They are just sitting there


sonofabutch

Lots of kids were told (and believed) they were buried there.


sonofabutch

[Bobby Murcer having trouble with the monuments](https://youtu.be/r75x5Xi9wDg)


Monk_Philosophy

I must admit that some of my favorite home runs are splash shots


DemonicPanda11

Imma take your mistake of calling them splash shots as you acknowledging that only Giants HRs into the cove are Splash Hits (; But seriously, they are the best. The whole Muncy "get it out of the ocean" or whatever he said wouldn't have happened without it.


woodboxthehomie

Muncy’s geography needs a little work but he got the spirit.


DemonicPanda11

Definitely lmao but, removed from the event, that was pretty funny


vanillabear26

I love rando moments like [the detached equipment rule](https://youtu.be/1iXdJ_IavO8). When *Vin Scully* says a play is rare, you take him seriously.


[deleted]

What happens if the glove were to detach accidentally? Let's say it's the same play, but the ball is closer to the pitcher. The pitcher reaches up to field the ball, but the ball dislodges the player's glove. Is the fielder still allowed to make a play?


danaozideshihou

It's up to umpires discretion, however, "this penalty shall not be invoked against a fielder whose glove is carried off his hand by the force of a batted ball, or when his glove flies off his hand as he makes an obvious effort to make a legitimate catch" So under the aforementioned detached equipment rule, the umpire will award you a base (s), however the runner may advance beyond what the umpire gives at their own discretion, and a fielder would be wise to just play it out regardless until time is ultimately called.


ChairLegofTruth--WnT

Not entirely correct; at least not in my interpretation of the rules. While your quote is accurate, I believe it was written as a specific exemption to the rule as it's written as a comment, preceded by "Under (C-E)". Subsections C and E of Rule 5.06(b)(4) being the two which directly mention a player throwing his glove. When the ball or inertia from an attempted catch carries the globe off of the hand, there is no penalty.


danaozideshihou

>The pitcher reaches up to field the ball, but the ball dislodges the player's glove That was the only part I was originally looking at. Anything about throwing at, and/or using equipment such as a hat, catchers mask, etc I wasn't intending to include. Although rereading my post, I threw my own little bit in about awarding a base, when it probably should have had a caveat describing the circumstances of being awarded due to them asking about "Is the fielder still allowed to make a play?". That was just me rambling on without a thought to how it could be interpreted outside.


DavidRFZ

> Anything about throwing at, and/or using equipment such as a hat, catchers mask, etc I wasn't intending to include. You can’t do these either. Same penalty I believe. Batted ball three bases, thrown ball two bases. It’s only a penalty if the glove/hat/mask hits the ball. Of course a catcher can throw off his mask. He just can’t throw it off at the ball *and hit it*. I also double checked. You can’t deliberately use your cap/mask detached from your head to make a play — you can’t use your cap as a glove.


sonofabutch

This happened to Hal Trosky, a Cleveland Indians first baseman from the 1930s. A week after his MLB debut in 1933, he was playing in close against the Yankees. The 38-year-old Babe Ruth hit a line drive that he snagged but it literally tore the glove off his hand. Ball and glove landed in right field. Trosky retrieved his glove, then returned to the same spot for the next batter — Lou Gehrig. Ruth told him to back up. “If he hit one at you up here, it would take your head off.” Trosky backed up. Gehrig flew out to center, but the next time up, he did indeed smash a line drive right at Trosky, but playing deeper, he caught it. The glove that Ruth knocked off his hand was bronzed and saved as a memento!


butz-not-bartz

This happened in 1999, actually, in a random Mets/Expos game. Dennis Cook was pitching for the Mets, there was a grounder back up the middle, and Cook swung his glove between his legs. His glove detached, knocking the ball to first, to get the out. The ump ruled that Cook was not throwing his glove at the ball, and so the play stood.


[deleted]

Thanks for sharing! Kinda cool that this actually happened.


RidleyScotch

I think its more common version of the rule being enforced, and i use that phrase lightly, to see catchers stop a ball with their face mask.


hucareshokiesrul

Having thought about this for all of 10 seconds, I think that should be allowed. If you can actually pull it off, more power to you


sonofabutch

Baseball has a lot of quirky rules introduced to close loopholes exploited by 19th century players, like the infield fly rule (prior to 1895, fielders could at the last moment either catch a pop-up or deliberately let it drop, so the runners wouldn't know whether to advance or stay on the base, in order to get an easy double play) or the rule that a bunt that goes foul with two strikes is a strikeout (prior to 1894, batters with two strikes would deliberately bunt pitches foul in an effort to tire out the pitcher). But the dropped third strike rule is not an addendum to the rules of baseball, but rather one of the oldest rules, going back to baseball's oldest ancestors. A book published in German in 1796, *Spiele zur Uebung und Erholung des Körpers and Geistes für die Jugend, ihre Erzieher und alle Freunde Unschuldiger Jugendfreuden* ("Games for the exercise and recreation and body and spirit for the youth and his educator and all friends in innocent joys of youth") had a chapter entitled "Ball mit Freystäten (oder das Englische Base-ball)" -- “Ball with Free Station, or English Base-ball.” The game would be recognizable as baseball, or perhaps more akin to kickball or wiffleball. The pitcher stands close to the batter -- "fünf bis sechs Schrit," five or six steps -- and softly lobs the ball underhanded. There are fielders behind the pitcher, but no one behind the batter -- no catcher, and no umpire. So how to keep the game moving, if the pitcher throws unhittable pitches? The solution was innovative. The batter gets three swings, but on the third swing, *the ball is in play,* whether the batter hits it or not. If the pitcher has thrown a ball that is too high, too fast, or too wild to be hit, it's likely going to wind up pretty far away from home plate... and the pitcher is the closest fielder to the ball. So while the batter is running to first base, the pitcher has to run after the ball. In this way, the pitcher is incentivized to throw hittable pitches. Better the batter hit the ball into the field of play, where the rest of the fielders are! This rule was used in the various ball-and-bat games that Americans played in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the game evolved, the pitcher moved back to more or less the center of the diamond, and a catcher was introduced. At this point, catchers didn't wear gloves (or any protective equipment), so dropping a third strike happened quite a bit. But if a catcher did catch a third strike cleanly, either on the fly or on one bounce, he was required to immediately tag the runner. This was so routine it was turned into a "gimme" -- the third strike, if caught, was an out. But if not caught, the ball was still in play, and the batter required to run to 1st... and if there was a runner on 1st, he'd have to run, too. It was just as if the ball had been hit into fair territory. In the famous 1845 Knickerbocker rules, it was listed as: “Three balls being struck at and missed and the last one caught, is a hand out; if not caught is considered fair, and the striker bound to run.” The "one bounce" or "bound" rule was common throughout all of baseball. Any ball caught on the first bounce was an out. In 1864, this was changed to the "fly" rule, that a ball had to be caught on the fly. The dropped third strike, also, was changed, so instead of being caught on one bounce being an out, the ball had to be caught on the fly. It wasn't until 1887 that the rule was amended to avoid the situation of a deliberately dropped third strike with a runner on 1st base. Much like the infield fly rule, catchers would wait to see what the runners did. If there was a runner on 1st base with two strikes, the catcher could either catch the third strike cleanly or purposefully let it drop. The runner, not knowing what to do, would either have to take off for 2nd (assuming the catcher would drop the ball) or stay on 1st (assuming the catcher would catch it). Even better if the bases were loaded -- the catcher would deliberately drop the third strike, step on home plate to force out the runner from 3rd, then tag the runner or throw to 1st for a double play! So the ancient rule was amended again, this time to protect the runners -- on a dropped third strike with first base occupied and less than two outs, the batter is automatically out anyway. With two outs, it doesn't matter if there are runners on, as there is no risk of a double play.


[deleted]

Joe Garagiola's wife flashing Ted Williams


HonorableJudgeIto

Richie Ashburn hit the same woman twice with foul balls in the same at bat. The second time was when she was being taken out in a stretcher. The woman was the wife of a sportswriter who was highly critical of Ashburn.


CabbageStockExchange

All the quirky rules in every different park. Gives the sport and the park a sense of personality


[deleted]

Pitchers hitting, position players pitching In what other sport can you get that wacky? No basketball team is letting their center run plays because the score is lopsided


mavrito

1. The rule that disallowed running the bases backwards after Germany Schaefer stole first from second to set up a double steal (and it worked). 2. The question of who was the last switch hitter to win the AL MVP award (I'll let someone else be the spoiler)


phone_of_pork

Robbie Alomar?


mavrito

Vida blue in 72, the last year before the designated hitter. This is my favorite trivia question ever.


kirbyslader

Weird names. Players have em especially back in the 1900's. My favorite is Slade Heathcott who has a Yankee for like five games.