In this thread I asked if a baseball player could legally “steal” a base in the backwards direction. Helpful Dopers posted excerpts of modern-day MLB rules that forbid such an act. The rules described such a steal – and other unorthodox and potentially disruptive ballfield behavior – as an attempt to “make a travesty of the game.” (I love that phrase, btw. Never heard it before.)
As one Doper pointed out, the “make a travesty of the game” clause is a sort of open-ended, all-purpose trumping charge that an umpire can apply at his/her discretion to penalize any bizarre behavior not covered elsewhere in the rulebook.
So, it got me thinking… Has any player ever been nailed with a “making a travesty of the game” penalty? And if so, what were the circumstances?
There have been a number of books about weirdness and oddities in the long history of the game of baseball. Something like refusing to run the bases, refusing to throw or give up the ball, hitting the ball and running to third base would all be considered “making a travesty of the game”.
I thought I’d imagined it, but Jimmy Piersall celebrated his 100th Home Run by running the bases backwards (but touched the bases in the proper order), but his antics weren’t declared a “travesty of the game” offense. But soon after it was declared that such conduct would rate a travesty of the game call.
Y’all might enjoy checking the Google search I ran. Some funny bits there
AL President Will Harridge attempted to rule Eddie Gaedel’s appearance “a travesty of the game,” but Veeck won out. Eddie’s career record: 0 hits for 0 at bats, but a 1.000 on base percentage (he was walked in his only appearance).
Some major leaguer (Dizzy Dean?) once hit (or bunted) the ball right back to the pitcher. Instead of legging it out, this loveable nut RAN to the dugout. (I’m laughing as I type this.)
The befuddled pitcher, not knowing what to do, just stood there, ball in hand as the next batter dug in at the plate. The guy on the mound got ready to pitch, and while this was going on, the prankster in the dugout came out and started sneaking towards first base.
Only then did the pitcher come to his senses to throw to first for the out.
They had fun back in the old days.
Some years ago (the early 90s I believe) a Stanford University catcher concealed a peeled potato on his person and with a runner on third threw it over the third baseman’s head, then tagged the runner attempting to score with the real ball. He was ejected from the game under the “travesty” rule. I believe the same thing happened in the minor leagues. Can’t give you a cite right now though.
Here’s an account of the minor league occurence of this story. The runner was awarded home, and the catcher fined the next day, then cut by his team’s parent club for disrupting the integrity of the game.
So not ejected – fired.
And here is another story of the same incident. The runner on third was a Stanford graduate, which may be where you’re getting your version of the story from. (that’s not to say is wasn’t “re-enacted” at stanford a few years later, but I’m not finding accounts of that)
IANABaseball player, and I read the Wiki article, but how can someone be walked if they don’t step up to the plate first? And wouldn’t receiving three pitches at the plate be an “At Bat”?
He did step up to the plate. The pitcher threw four pitches, all balls, and he was awarded first base on a walk.
For statistical purposes, walks do not count as an official at-bat. Your batting average is unaffected by a walk. Although, IIRC, if you are walked with the bases full you do get credit for an RBI.
There’s “at-bat”, and there’s “plate appearance”. Every plate appearance is an at-bat, but not the reverse. An at-bat ends in a hit, out (except sacrifices), fielder’s choice, or error. A walk, hit by pitch, or sacrifice (bunt or fly) results in a plate appearance, but not an at-bat.
The intent being to not penalize a player’s batting average when he does something beneficial for the team even while not getting a hit, since batting average is calculated on at-bats instead of plate appearances.
Similarly, in baseball statistics, a “hit” means more than “bat makes contact with ball”. I think it’s only counted as a “hit” if, as a result, the batter reaches a base (but don’t quote me on that).
No. Every at-bat is a plate appearance, but not every plate appearance is an at-bat. You cannot have an at-bat without having appeared at the plate, but you can have a plate appearance without having had an at bat.
On preview, what others have noted…
And a person can reach base after hitting a fair ball without having recorded a “hit.” Gotta love the stats of the game!!
The way I read it (long before that post–sometime around 1998 when I was really getting into baseball; Best Season Ever, BTW), Mr. Schaefer in particular often was trying to make a travesty of the game. Though the example given in that thread was one with a functional purpose, sometimes if he was the only man on he would steal second, then steal first, then go back to second, etc. just to piss the other team off. Rather predictably, it worked well. Eventually TPTB got sick of his shit–Washington were scoring runs just because the frustration was making opposing pitchers rough around the edges.
BTW, someone said in the linked thread that there’s no legal way to steal first base. I’ve always disagreed on the semantic level: if you’re struck out and you still reach first base, that’s as much a steal as any other in my book.
To tie this in with the statistics: batting average = hits / at-bats. Most hitters consider reaching base on a walk a good effort on their part, and if walks, sacrifices, etc. counted as “at-bats” they would unfairly dilute that hitter’s average. So at-bats technically consist of only hits and outs.
Other examples of ambiguous wording in perhaps the world’s most tightly structured team sport include “walk”, which in casual conversation can mean either a base-on-balls or a hit-by-pitch. It gets confusing on TV broadcasts where the statistics line reads “52 BB” and the commentator reads the number as “52 walks”, and then goes on to say the guy “walked three hitters today” including a hit batsman.
Chronos, it’s actually more specific than that. If he makes contact, reaches base and the fielder literally drops the ball or throws off-target, or if the throw is true but the baseman misses/drops it, and the ump figures he wouldn’t have reached base otherwise, it’s an error and not a hit.
