Pretty cool

[Kevin Finnerty]

Very interesting! So much wrong with this whole thing...on a playing level and on an umpiring level. What to do, what to do... On a playing level, is it unsportsman like or just heady? Players will do anything to win. Goes back to the ol' saying,"if you aint cheatin, you aint trying". The hidden ball trick. Some think thats bogus and unsportsmanlike but you see it tried a lot. I was at a game where I witnessed the hidden ball trick to end a game and the players that it was against went ape s@&*. It almost started a brawl they thought it was so cowardly. It was a one run game BTW. They even blamed the umpire for allowing it to happen. I was told (as an umpire) if I ever see this being done, find a way to call timeout to nullify the prank. Sweep off the plate kinda thing. To me, the hidden ball trick doesn't bother me one bit. Hey runners, wait until the pitcher is on the mound (or rubber) before you take a lead, that will solve that little issue. There is always a coach or player trying to gain an advantage however they can, I see it all the time. TRICK PLAYS are just that, a way to TRICK the opposition. Look up the word "trick" and you'll see a list of 14 definitions one being (the first one): "a crafty or underhanded device, maneuver, stratagem, or the like, intended to deceive or cheat; artifice; ruse; wile. So what F8 just did was an obvious trick play. You can all come up with trick plays in baseball, there are tons of them and some pretty darn clever ones. Me personally, it doesn't really bother me that much because I just catagorize it as a heady play. As an umpire, I would have to simply apply the rule TOT, 2 bases and let the coaches and players deal with that guy. Your ejecting a guy for doing whatever he could to win (even though it was cowardly, add any adjective you like) he simply did what other teams do all the time just more obvious.

And this was already mentioned but with a gap shot, what in the hell is the runner on 1st doing? he should have been halfway to 3rd by then. Oh well.

Guys are competitive and will go to extreme measures at times to win. I accept that.....

What to do? May I suggest an occasional paragraph break?

Great post; hard to read.

[Kevin Finnerty]

A hidden ball trick is fine, it's a legal play that is hard to pull off. Throwing the ball over the fence, at the HS level is absolutely unsportsmanlike and is tossable.

My first instinct would be to take action for unsportsmanlike conduct and I think I would also toss. I would also be very generous in my judgement of where the runner was at the time of throw. And if I got that wrong and awarded an extra base, I would lose zero minutes of sleep.

That play is so chickenSH*#, it's hard to compare it to anything. I coached hundreds of players, including dozens who went on to D-I, D-II and the minors. I would never coach a team or a player to do something that chickenSH*#. I toss the player and sternly warn the douchebag posing as a baseball coach.

[umped up]

A hidden ball trick is fine, it's a legal play that is hard to pull off. Throwing the ball over the fence, at the HS level is absolutely unsportsmanlike and is tossable.

My first instinct would be to take action for unsportsmanlike conduct and I think I would also toss. I would also be very generous in my judgement of where the runner was at the time of throw. And if I got that wrong and awarded an extra base, I would lose zero minutes of sleep.

That play is so chickenSH*#, it's hard to compare it to anything. I coached hundreds of players, including dozens who went on to D-I, D-II and the minors. I would never coach a team or a player to do something that chickenSH*#. I toss the player and sternly warn the douchebag posing as a baseball coach.

I love it! I knew there would be all sorts of hair raising on this one, I just chalk it up to "if your around the game long enough, you'll see something you've never seen before". And that's definitely one of them. Not that i'm disagreeing with anyone on this, it just doesn't ruffle me so bad, I tend to laugh a little bit about the play.

I love your quote BTW, I've used it since. That totally describes me to a "T". I also love how you described the "douchebag posing as a coach" Very nicely put.

[Kevin Finnerty]

Thank you!