Oftentimes, when a shortstop or baseman fields a ball, he will not immediately throw the ball to first base, but instead, sort of clap-grasp the ball in a sort of…“gathering”? motion, kind of like he’s clapping his throwing hand with his glove hand, and then fire the ball to first base. (Kind of hard to describe in words.)
Is there a purpose for this? I’m assuming it makes the baseman feel more…“gathered” before he throws the ball? I’ve wondered if sometimes doing this costs a split second which can then give the batter the time he needs to reach first base as opposed to being a yard or two short.
You’ll sometimes hear announcers call that a “double clutch”, especially if it looks like it resulted in a delay that caused the ball to get to first late. He does it to ensure his grip is right - but is sometimes just a tic.
This occurs in other sports which involve throwing a ball.
Along with the insufficient grip and indecision, the (not uncommon) situation for the fielder is their body position ie alignment of shoulders and hips required to field/gather the ball cleanly is inconsistent with the alignment required to throw the ball with sufficient speed/accuracy to the target. So during the double pump/clutch the player naturally does a skip to move their body into optimal alignment. To not do so would risk making a weak or wild throw which would miss getting the out.
