04/23/24
June 09, 2009
Pujols' two-run sacrifice fly: St. Louis Cardinal Albert Pujols drives in two runs with a sacrifice fly ball. How often does this happen? (Video only)
posted by yerfatma at 08:48 PM on June 09, 2009
I'm only a newbie baseball fan, but can see this would happen quite a bit if the fielder gets injured making the catch, and there's not immediate back up from the other outfielders. Or is running in those circumstances seen as bad sportsmanship?
posted by owlhouse at 09:07 PM on June 09, 2009
Joe Mauer, A.J. Pierzynski and Tommy Herr have all been members of the Minnesota Twins at one time. Twins are two of something, like runs, perhaps? Also, Pujols' Wikipedia article features him wearing a 1982 uniform while playing in the Metrodome, the home stadium of the Minnesota Twins. I'm just sayin'.
posted by hootch at 09:41 PM on June 09, 2009
Joe Mauer, A.J. Pierzynski and Tommy Herr have all been members of the Minnesota Twins at one time. Twins are two of something, like runs, perhaps? Also, Pujols' Wikipedia article features him wearing a 1982 uniform while playing in the Metrodome, the home stadium of the Minnesota Twins. I'm just sayin'.
Does that mean that Pujols is a witch?
posted by BoKnows at 10:28 PM on June 09, 2009
I suppose we could build a bridge out of him and find out.
Owl, it's not seen as bad sportsmanship in that instance because there's really no way for the runner at second to know the extent of the injury. Sportsmanship would dictate, however, that if you smoke a line drive off the pitcher's head and he goes down in a heap, you stop at first base and let the medical staff get out on the field.
I've actually scored on one of these plays (back when I could run), but it was more through the laziness of the outfielder than anything else. We were playing a sophomore game at a high school where there was no fence. I was on second and the batter smoked a high and deep one to right-center.
Our man on third was going to score easily, but I also knew if the guy couldn't catch up with it, I could trot home, so I tagged up. The outfielder made a fine running catch, but his momentum was carrying him away from the infield, so I took off for third. Halfway there, our third-base coach started subtly waving his hands in a twirling motion, so I kept chugging.
It turned out the outfielder had just turned and flipped the ball in, assuming he had no play at the plate and I would stop at third. I scored standing up, and the outfielder got an ass chewing from his coach.
Ah, good times, good times.
posted by wfrazerjr at 10:59 AM on June 10, 2009
Pujols turned me into a Newt i got better
wfrazejr, was it a close game? Or were you up by 12? One, you're a hero. The other, you get a close shave your next AB, and possibly get turned into a Newt.
posted by smithnyiu at 12:28 PM on June 10, 2009
Does that mean that Pujols is a witch?
Yes. A switch hitting witch.
I know, he's a righty, but that's the closest I'll ever get to being able to properly drop that line.
posted by tron7 at 04:35 PM on June 10, 2009
After the sac fly, Pujols was heard saying, "bring out your dead, bring out your dead" and was asked when entering the dugout what his favorite color was. Which caught me off guard since everyone knows it's blue, no green, ahhhhhhh/lol.
posted by jagsnumberone at 05:02 PM on June 10, 2009
wfrazejr, was it a close game? Or were you up by 12? One, you're a hero. The other, you get a close shave your next AB, and possibly get turned into a Newt.
We were up by ... lemme see ...
One .. two ... five!
No, we were up a couple of runs. I'm not the hero, it was my third-base coach, who picked up the fact the outfielder 1) didn't throw very well and 2) was pretty lazy. I just followed a good set of orders.
posted by wfrazerjr at 08:38 PM on June 10, 2009
Sorry, I know there isn't much substance to this post, but I thought it would be interesting to discuss the rarity of this. I can think of a few reasons as to why it could happen, but usually the runner at second is content with moving to third on a jog.