04/20/24
August 11, 2005
A venerable baseball tradition continues: No, it's not the All-Star game, nor the pennant races, nor the annual raising of the beer prices. It's the ol' hidden ball trick, executed successfully twice in two seasons now by Mike Lowell.
posted by DrJohnEvans to baseball at 10:13 AM - 19 comments
ESPN has a nice video (click on a Watch link and find the Marlins/D-backs game).
posted by kokaku at 10:39 AM on August 11, 2005
Great stuff; I love it. Really pisses off runners who get caught. FYI, your link to the Herald requires a registration, the one to MSNBC does not.
posted by tommysands at 10:42 AM on August 11, 2005
Dr.J, I didn't realize you realized it.
posted by tommysands at 10:43 AM on August 11, 2005
Weird. I just ran into this link yesterday. Off of Fire Joe Morgan, which was pointing out Ozzie Guillen fell for it three times. Smartball, indeed.
posted by yerfatma at 10:58 AM on August 11, 2005
Thanks for the link, yerfatma. I can't believe Ozzie Guillen fell for it twice in one season. The first time I saw that in little league, I became obsessed with trying to get someone with it at first. It was the norm all over the league to wait a few seconds and glance back at the bag before throwing back to the pitcher. Nothing like making the kid who hadn't ever seen the trick feel like crap.
posted by cl at 11:35 AM on August 11, 2005
It's tougher to do in MLB now than it was before. The current set of rules make it very difficult for the pitcher to be part of the deception. If the pitcher steps onto the mound without the ball, it's a balk. In this case, the pitcher made a motion to step on the mound, and instead placed his foot on the edge (grass only). Plus, it was some wide-eyed rookie they got on 3B. Poor sonofabitch. The real blame should be on the 3B coach, who should have noticed Lowell didn't throw the ball back to the pitcher in the first place.
posted by grum@work at 12:18 PM on August 11, 2005
Its still a neat play, when it happens. Goes right along with the suicide squease and stealing of home. The classics!
posted by daddisamm at 01:04 PM on August 11, 2005
Hey if it works do it. Makes for lots of fun while angering the runner.
posted by melcarek69 at 01:14 PM on August 11, 2005
I love it!
posted by dusted at 01:35 PM on August 11, 2005
Wow, you can not take anything for granted...
posted by smithers at 01:40 PM on August 11, 2005
Did you see who the third base coach was, grum? A familiar face indeed.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 01:58 PM on August 11, 2005
Maybe the language barrier is to blame... poor guy, kinda makes you wonder if he ever heard of this trick before
posted by playball9 at 02:07 PM on August 11, 2005
CL where does it say Ozzie fell for it twice? He's listed in the perpetrator catagory, not victim. Or do I need glasses?
posted by volfire at 02:58 PM on August 11, 2005
Hey it happens. Very risky move but hey it just shows that Pro's become laxidasical running the bases. Good for them to do that and ultimately it saved the game. I hate Florida but i Love the Hidden Ball Trick.
posted by Astroheat442 at 03:30 PM on August 11, 2005
volfire, Ozzie got tricked twice in 1989, on 6/23 and 8/5. Then once more on 5/13/1991. It looks like you might have skipped down to the "unsubstantiated possibilities" table, where he's listed as someone who might've pulled the trick two times in two days at some point in his career.
posted by cl at 03:37 PM on August 11, 2005
Did you see who the third base coach was, grum? A familiar face indeed. Yah, I almost choked on my lunch when I saw who it was.
posted by grum@work at 04:21 PM on August 11, 2005
I'll be damned...is that Larry Bowa?
posted by tdheiland at 08:49 PM on August 11, 2005
No, it was Carlos Tosca, the ex-Blue Jays manager.
posted by grum@work at 09:51 AM on August 12, 2005
Argh. The Herald link worked out of Google, but not from here. bugmenot has several working accounts though.