04/25/24
April 21, 2010
Player Flips Over Catcher to Score Run: Brian Kownacki of Fordham College scored a run against Iona College by borrowing a move from Major League's Willie Mays Hayes.
It's perfectly legal, since he's staying within the baselines. It's just not something you see because the catcher has to epically fail to not tag a guy hanging in the air over his head. Even at his fastest the player jumping through the air should be a lot slower than a catcher's arm whipping around; that catcher must have been seriously off-balance in leaning forward for the tag.
posted by hincandenza at 10:56 PM on April 21, 2010
All I could think of when I first saw that was this.
posted by wfrazerjr at 10:58 PM on April 21, 2010
It's just not something you see because the catcher has to epically fail to not tag a guy hanging in the air over his head.
Eh, I disagree. Sure, most times this play probably wouldn't work, but it's specifically because you never see it that it has a chance. The catcher is thinking the runner might slide right, might slide left, don't let the runner get under the tag, and if he's going to try and run me over (which is the logical guess) stay low and hold on to the ball. So the catcher should be balanced, but not for the purpose of tagging out a player flying over him. He's not prepared for that. And since the ball arrived well before the runner I'm sure the catcher was getting ready for a collision, which means getting low and strong. That's perfectly balanced for a collision, perfectly unbalanced for coming up with the tag (and Inge basically says the same thing in the last paragraph).
Even at his fastest the player jumping through the air should be a lot slower than a catcher's arm whipping around
Well, ignoring that you're going with an assumption with no physics to back it up (I failed physics, wouldn't understand it anyway) the key is not which is faster (the arm or the flying player) but the reaction time it takes for the catcher to realize what's happening and react. If the catcher is fooled even if you're right (and I'm not sure you are) the arm would have to be fast enough to catch up with the runner.
posted by justgary at 04:12 AM on April 22, 2010
Unless it has been changed in the past few years, I remember the high school rule (NFHS rules were derived from NCAA rules) as prohibiting hurdling but not diving. The reasoning behind this was that hurdling put the runner into a greater danger of injury than diving. In either case, it was a heck of a play.
posted by Howard_T at 04:46 PM on April 22, 2010
That was just fucking awesome.
posted by irunfromclones at 08:37 PM on April 22, 2010
Wow. I didn't think that was a legal move. Very impressive.