Why is 2nd base considered “scoring position” in baseball? Shouldn’t 3rd base be scoring position?
Usually, a base hit with a runner on second will bring that runner home.
To expand on Chief’s response. Most baseball players can tell from the initial few seconds of a struck ball’s flight, whether it will be a hit or not. If you think it’ll be a hit, you can be 2/3’s of the way to 3rd base before it falls into the outfield.
Going from 1st to 2nd - the outfielder might be able to pick you off at 2nd (which is the the closest base to the outfield). But if you start at 2nd, they’ve got to get the ball another 180 feet to throw you out.
Thus “the cut off man” whose job is to “relay the ball.”
That is why you should never make the third out at third base. It isn’t worth trying. With 2 outs, nearly anything that can get you home from third will get you home from second. If you see a Major Leaguer do that, then he isn’t very smart.
Nor should you make the first out of an inning at third base. If you’re on second base with no outs, you can likely score while your team is making two outs.
Not to hijack this thread (actually, I think this will expand, enlighten and enhance it), but could it be that with all the recent emphasis on juiced balls, home runs and scoring bunches of runs at once, that many fans, especially young ones, are unaware of the art of manufacturing runs?
Lead-off batter gets on first, then takes second by stealing, being sacrificed over or with a base hit. Further sacrifices/hits allow runner(s) to score. If a team is able to keep this up, a nice little scoring rally can take place in an inning. Or a couple of decent innings can yield 4 or 5 runs.
I may get flamed for this, but I think this is what is lost on the people who don’t care for baseball’s “static” nature. Baseball is a sport of strategy as well as action. The situation changes with every pitch. That is what makes baseball exciting, IMO; the tension of each pitch, and the anticipation between pitches. If you want a sport filled with running around and colliding bodies, then by all means, watch soccer. It’s a fine sport. But don’t diss baseball because you don’t appreciate the strategy and the drama that goes into all the “dead” spaces between fairly hit balls.
Scoring position is not LIMITED to second base…the phrase includes third base, as well. Once a runner reaches second base, they are said to be in scoring position because there is a high chance that subsequent events can bring that runner home to score.