Some of the best cheating goes on in the preps, where plays intended to create confusion or deceive the target are much more likely to work.
From the Arizona Daily Star
With one out in the fifth, the game tied at 2, and Dorados speedster Zach Tarbet on first base, Ironwood Ridge coach Nick Allen called for the “Rainbow Play.”
Knowing Tarbet’s reputation as an aggressive base runner, the Nighthawks tried something new. The trick play went something like this:
As Tarbet took off from first, Ironwood Ridge ace Zach Morales threw a fastball to catcher Jake Wilhelm. Rather than try to gun down Tarbet, Wilhelm tossed a rainbow-arched pop-up toward second baseman Brandon Collins.
The entire Ironwood Ridge crew — coaches included — screamed “pop fly” and pointed toward the sky, drowning out the CDO voices. Running with his head down, Tarbet tried to read the Ironwood Ridge fielders that were selling and yelling for the phantom fly ball, and he stopped and turned back toward first base.
If Tarbet would have continued toward second, he would have stolen the bag easily.
Instead Collins fielded the throw from Wilhelm, and Tarbet was caught between first and second base and was tagged out.
Check out the full story: they practiced the play just to get that one player out. Sweet stuff.
(h/t to Adam Stein for the suggestion)
Jason Wojciechowski | 04-May-07 at 8:42 am | Permalink
Haven’t read the book, so maybe you’ve covered this already, but my high school coach taught us the “double squeeze” play:
With runners on second and third, run a squeeze play, except the runner on second, instead of going straight to third, goes part of the way there, cuts across the infield to get to the third base line, and continues home.
The play only works because a typical prep game has two umps: one of them has to cover first on the play and the other covers home, so there should be nobody watching.
We practiced it a few times, and tried to run it in a game situation once, but the batter missed the bunt (I was the runner on third).
KEN | 04-May-07 at 3:13 pm | Permalink
This is trickery, but is it cheating? I.e., does it violate anything in the rulebook?
DMZ | 04-May-07 at 5:25 pm | Permalink
It’s not breaking the rules, but in the book I cover everything from legal trickery and groundskeeping to game-fixing, so I’m writing about all that here, too.
Steve | 05-May-07 at 7:52 pm | Permalink
It’s not breaking the rules,….
Actually it is against the rules. NFHS rules specifically call for officials to enforce “verbal obstruction.”
The unpires blew this one in applying MLB rules to a high school game.
DMZ | 05-May-07 at 8:23 pm | Permalink
I didn’t realize there was an applicable rule in high school that covered that. My fault.
Steve | 06-May-07 at 9:25 am | Permalink
Just to provide documentation on this play for you, here is the citation from the 2007 NFHS Case book:
Obstruction 2.22.1 Situation A: R1 attempts to steal second. F2, upon receiving the pitch, throws a pop-up to F6. F5 yells “get back, get back.” R1 thinks B2 has hit a pop-up and starts back to first where he is tagged out. RULING: This is verbal obstruction and R1 shall be awarded second base.
The play is legal under MLB rules, but not in High School.
(This post is not to belabor the point, but rather to provide documentation for future reference. Quite simply, the umpires blew this call.)