Mississippi high schooler steals 103 bases ... in 30 games

So ... you knew about the thread, remembered it from four years ago, but had never read it? Seems odd. "I get to finally see some of his work!" I don't remember threads I never opened four years later.

 

If I was giving the guy the stolen base, I'd be incompetent. I've been told if the catcher makes no attempt, it ain't a steal. Maybe not. But as far as your sanctimonious attitude, go bleep yourself.

 

Well, you're wrong. Often the catcher makes no attempt because the runner was too fast or got too good of a jump. We're going to have to revise Rickey Henderson's totals down by I'm guessing at least 10 percent based on hondo logic.

 

The "catcher's indifference" rule is bullshit because it requires the official scorer to read the minds of the defensive players.

Sometimes in a perfectly competitive game a runner will get a great jump, when the catcher gets the ball he has no chance in hell of throwing him out, the catcher realizes this and rather than risking the throw down to second (and giving up another base on an overthrow) he just holds onto the ball. The catcher is not "indifferent" to the runner moving up but he elects not to make a play.

Hell, I have seen plays where the runner breaks for second, the catcher catches the pitch and comes out of the crouch, but he sees the SS and 2B have their coverage assignment screwed up and have left the base open, so once again the catcher doesn't throw.

But the scorer is only "empowered" to refuse to award the SB if he makes his own value judgment that the catcher was "indifferent" to making an attempt to throw the runner out.

 

I do not think there is an official scorer in the world that would rule indifference in the scenario you are talking about. The only time indifference is ever ruled is when a team is down a ton in the late innings and moves up without the defense holding the runners or covering the base. Even then I have seen stolen bases awarded so I will agree with you that, yes, the indifference rule can be total crap.

 

I've seen indifference ruled when a team was UP a ton in the final innings.

Either way the official scorer shouldn't be tasked with (or allowed to) figuring out what was the defensive team's intentions.

 

If a team was stealing late while up a ton of runs I hope there was a little chin music in response.

 

Breaking off the argument on what official scorers should or should not be empowered/allowed to make judgement calls on, one point that needs to be brought out here is that as you go down the ranks in quality among HS baseball, the harder and harder it becomes for catchers to throw out basestealers - at all.

A long long time ago I was coaching in a summer 16U rec league which was probably equivalent to low-level Class D high school ball.

As far as I know, in the whole league, all season long, there was ONE (1) base stealer thrown out at second base. For the whole season.

I called time out, marched out on the field and presented our catcher with the game ball in recognition of being the only catcher in the league to throw out a base stealer all season.

So yeah, if we had had a D-I level athlete playing in that league -- no doubt he would have stolen 100+ bases in 30 games.

 

The catcher's indifference/base allowed scenario happens quite a bit in high school softball, especially since runners can't lead off.

In a first-and-third situation (mostly with no outs or one out), many catchers in my area never try to throw down to second ... mainly because it is hard to get the out at second AND keep the run from scoring.

Thus, I've seen several players nearly walk to second base OR get the runner at third in a rundown. Sometimes they get her out. Sometimes she scores. But very rarely do they get the runner on third out AND keep the other runner at first.

 

This isn't the politics thread, therefore, there's no need for you to be an asshole.

 

I used to get into scoring discussions on a regular basis with the father of an infielder who played baseball at a very high college level and could've gone pro if he'd chosen to. I think the old fucker rode me harder than he did his son. He did indirectly teach me a lot about baseball, though.

 

You were wrong, he ain't the asshole.