Is/Was there ever a designated runner used in the history of pro-ball baseball, or is this only a little-league concept? Just thought I’d ask…you never know what odd instance someone may recall!
- Jinx
Is/Was there ever a designated runner used in the history of pro-ball baseball, or is this only a little-league concept? Just thought I’d ask…you never know what odd instance someone may recall!
Charlie Finley toyed with the idea of a designated runner in the early 1970s. He even went and signed a former track star, Herb Washington, to serve as a “designated runner”, although he was just a regular old pinch runner. He was on the A’s roster in 1974 and 1975 and never batted nor played in the field. Eventually, the A’s realized he was a luxury they could not afford. The A’s would keep guys who just pinch ran primarily (like Matt Alexander), but he would play in the field occassionally or bat once in a while.
In the first part of the 20th Century, baseball teams would use the practice of “courtesy runners” where if a player was injured during a play (usually by being hit by a pitch), the opposing manager would allow that team to replace the guy with a “courtesy runner” who would run the bases in that half inning and then the original player would return when the inning was over after getting patched up.
Usually the courtesy runners were other pitchers. It was not supposed to be used to get a faster player in to the game. It was designed, in days of smaller rosters, to allow big stars to stay in the game.
Ah, they’re 1920s style “Courtesy Runners”
I distinctly remember watching an A’s game where Herb Washington got picked off first.
He may have been fast, but he hadn’t been schooled in baseball well enough to spot a pickoff move.
Washington was most famously picked off by the Dodgers’ Mike Marshall in Game 2 of the 1974 World Series.
In the 9th inning.
When he was the potential tying run.
Here’s an interesting link about early “Courtesy Runners”, as well as some instances of them being used in ML games.
Please stop screwing around with the baseball question, guys. It’s blasphemous.
Yes, pinch runners are used in MLB games. It tends to happen more often after the roster expansion in August than earlier in the season. That’s when the scrambling for playoff spots starts.
You evidently know the strategy for Little League, so go ahead and extrapolate.
Say you are behind by one in the bottom of the ninth and your big-ball hitter leads off and ends up dribbling one into the outfield. He’s big and he’s strong, but he can’t run faster than I can and he’s on first…
Exgineer, I’ll be the first to state the obvious. The question was of a “designated runner,” not a pinch runner.
Okay, color me ignorant.
Or else, just another dumbass who saw what he expected to see, and reacted accordingly.
So then, what Flymaster said.