"I had had a hard day at work. The boss had been on my case. I decided to hit the local tavern on my way home.
"I walked in to the tavern, and I noticed there was a ballgame on the TV that’s hanging on the back wall. I took a stool at the bar, and ordered a beer. I glanced up. I’m not really that interested in baseball, but there was an attractive lady sitting there, and she seemed interested in the game. I asked her, “What’s the score?”
She said, “There’s no score. It’s the bottom of the 5th…”
There were two outs. The batter hit a hard grounder, sharply down the first base line. Since there was no one on base, the first baseman was playing off the bag. He lunged and grabbed the ball before it could make it into the outfield.
Then-instead of running to first base to make the out-he took the ball, and fired it across the diamond to the third baseman, who caught the ball and stepped on third. The Ump made the sign saying, “You’re out!” All three of his team mates ran off the field.
What happened?
Best I’ve been able to come up with involves the guy seeing the game in a mirror, and the ball was actually hit to 3B
Second your conclusion is rather brilliant. After all, those puzzlers often have subtle clues. I’ve been thinking about this all week and didn’t think of this out-of-the-box solution. In this case the TV was on the back wall, Tom (or was it Ray?) was sitting at the bar. There’s always a mirror on the wall behind the bartender. If he just glanced up while sitting at the bar, it is not likely he would have quickly glanced over his shoulder directly behind him, but rather just looked up at the mirror.
No score in the bottom of the 5th is a red herring.
This makes me think the game is Wiffle Ball.There may have been a “ghost runner” (a/k/a “invisible man”) on second who was thrown out at third, but I don’t remember the rules exactly. Are Wiffle Ball games ever televised?
bib, it’s a good try, but Wiffle Ball doesn’t have bases to throw people out at. There are zones in which balls are hit to count as singles, doubles, triples, and home runs, and outs are only made by catching balls while they’re still moving. The batter never runs.
I just thought of something. Using the language the way that it’s written, I get this: “The ump made the sign saying ‘you’re out!’ All three of HIS (the UMP’s) team mates ran off the field.”
There are typically four umpires. One for each base, and the ones on the corners also call fair/foul balls once they cross the base (the home plate umpire has authority until then).
So, if the umpire said the guy was out, and it was the last out, then the remainder of the umpires might have been running off the field, especially if there were extenuating circumstances. Maybe the game was going into a rain delay.
So…the guy was watching in a mirror, and the teammates were the other umpires?
7.02
In advancing, a runner shall touch first, second, third and home base in order. If forced to return, he shall retouch all bases in reverse order, unless the ball is dead under any provision of Rule 5.09. In such cases, the runner may go directly to his original base.
OK so it doesn’t say he is out if that happens. Can’t say I didn’t try.
How about hitting with a foot out of the batters box?
6.06
A batter is out for illegal action when_ (a) He hits a ball with one or both feet on the ground entirely outside the batter’s box. If a batter hits a ball fair or foul while out of the batter’s box, he shall be called out. Umpires should pay particular attention to the position of the batter’s feet if he attempts to hit the ball while he is being intentionally passed. A batter cannot jump or step out of the batter’s box and hit the ball. …
BTW what I meant in my earlier post was that he stepped in home plate while advancing to first. It is not possible to step on home plate and still be in the batters box at the same time.
Wild guess- could the “game” be a scene from the movie “Pride of the Yankees”?
As many trivia buffs know, to create the illusion that Gary Cooper was a left-hander like Lou Gehrig, he and all the other “players” in the film wore uniforms with backward numbers and lettering, and did everything on the field backwards. During scenes where Cooper was supposed to be playing first base, he was really on third, while the guy who was supposed to be playing the third baseman was really on first.
After the camera crew filmed scenes, the film was reversed, so it appeared that Cooper was wearing number 4, playing first base, and batting left-handed.
So, IF I walked into a bar where the TV was showing “Pride of the Yankees,” a ground ball hit to “first” base was really hit to third, and the guy who fielded it had to throw to the real third base to create the illusion he was throwing to Cooper at first.
I know- too complicated to be a good brain teaser answer!
