Not only that, if the pitcher knew what was coming he would adjust and strike him out. Big league pitchers have enough control to throw a reasonably good fastball into a small strike zone. It doesn’t have to be particularly fast or have any movement if the batter has no intention of swinging. Giving up a 40 man roster spot let alone a 26 man major league roster spot to someone who might get you one walk a game is not worth it.
Not only that, if he did swing, can you imagine hitting even a “modest” MLB fastball with the tiny bat he carried?
While that’s a dick move, I’m a bit confused as to why the guy who invented the game didn’t include a mechanic to make players borrow at least some money, even if it was just to say you cannot pass your turn. That’s such a weird hole in the game.
The guy pitching to Eddie Gaedel, Bob Cain, was by all accounts laughing the entire time he did so. Had he has his composure of course he could have thrown a strike.
Cain was the only MLB player to attend Gaedel’s funeral.
The thing is it’s a really boring way to play. And if you’re not going to have fun playing a boardgame, why do it?
Plus, while it’s possible for everyone else to default that’s uncommon. So what would usually happen if you passed every turn would be you’d have a really dull time and then somebody else would win.
I may be misremembering but in the video game Counter-Strike a FPS game pitting terrorists vs counter-terrorists, there was a hostage rescue mode. CT’s would rescue hostages held by the terrorists. However (I forgot if they patched this or not) the terrorists could just execute the hostages for a small financial penalty, which would lead to the CT’s being forced to change tactics to win and have to hunt down the terrorists and kill them as opposed to winning by saving the hostages.
It was legal but heavily frowned upon because the whole point of the mode was rescuing hostages, not just turning it into yet another death match, while also forcing the CTs to look for the hostages to make sure they were still alive before hunting down the remaining terrorists which gave the terrorists plenty of time to hunker down somewhere.
I remember when “camping” in online fps games was pretty bad until some of the later ones made it part of the gameplay (and the online RPGs like Everquest made “camping” span points an actual feature of the game )
Sheesh, I remember all the “I was here first” arguments in EQ. I was so glad when instancing became a thing.
oh a total bitch move in many MMORPGs is/was “kiting” was say you or your group wanted a specific spot to do whatever you needed or wanted to do there but there’s people there … what you’d do is find the areas boss lvl or higher than normal character smack it and then run through the area letting the thing chasing you kill everything else in its path while you left the area then you’d come back into a cleared area and go from there
I didn’t know this was a thing and I am highly amused at the thought of it.
That was actually known as “training” and could get you in trouble on the PVE servers. PVP however was fair game.
“Kiting” was generally getting a mob to chase you while your teammates dealt with other matters. Druids and Wizards did “Quad Kiting,” which hit the mobs (usually 4 of them) with snares to slow their movement while you ran ahead of them and hit them Area Effect damage. Quick way of soloing for exp.
To clarify, “trains” could be unintentional. Usually, players would camp by the entrance for access to a quick escape if things went tits up, so they’d sit and regen their health and mana. In EQ’s dark days, your screen would fill up with the contents of your spellbook, preventing you from seeing the outside world and subsequently the enemy mobs sneaking up on you, so it was a little risky. As a courtesy, people would use the SHOUT channel to announce “TRAIN” whenever they were having to escape with their lives. This wasn’t always possible however, and the mobs would end up slaughtering the campers after the runner zoned.
Since deaths resulted in exp loss, getting killed by a train really sucked for newbies. I got to where I would find a spot along the wall further away from the zone exit, out of the aggro area of potential hostiles.
This is the problem with all the soccer “dark arts” that could be an answer to the question. They could all be yellow carded if the ref wanted, so even though shithousing takes place all the time and is a big part of some teams’ identities, I guess it’s not strictly legal.
Similar situation to diving and simulation in soccer: the explosion in taking charges in college basketball (there are some, but fewer, egregious examples in the NBA). It’s more of a personal opinion of mine that it’s a jerk move, but I think it made the sport much worse, even though by definition if the ref is giving the charge, it’s legal.
The idea of the rule is that if a defensive player is between you and the basket, you can’t just barrel through them, which is a good rule. Enterprising college players started taking advantage of refs by jumping in front of offensive players right in front of the basket and flinging themselves to the ground, in situations where they aren’t actually trying to defend anything, they’re just trying to get the ref to call a foul. I’m talking about situations where, for example, a player drives into an open lane and passes the ball out to an open shooter, and after he passes, makes contact with a defensive player who then flings themselves on the ground on the baseline. Or a situation where a player has an open lane and a defensive player rushes over, trying to get to a spot fractionally before the offensive player does, and then immediately falls down theatrically, having not prevented or even really contested the shot. And it works!
They have tweaked the rules a bit over the years to take some of the really terrible situations out on paper, but in practice, refs see what looks like a collision and just call a charge. This opinion is in no way affected by the fact that I once fouled out of a game with 4 offensive fouls and a technical.
This is exactly correct.
IMO, this tactic was elevated to an art form by Coach K at Duke. Shane Battier was one of the worst offenders (defenders?)
Greg Paulus never quite learned the proper technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0upQDkY-pg
I didn’t want to bring my personal grievance against Duke into it, but you are exactly correct.
The ‘Duke flop’ is one of the main reasons for my personal grievance against them!
When the guy with the the small strike zone can hit, they become the greatest lead off hitter of all time and end up in the Hall of Fame.
My dad coached my one year of little league. I had to beg him to let me pitch, but he loved having me bat leadoff. I was exceedingly short, but I never swung at “bad” balls. I either walked or knocked a single with all my might every time.
I did not know that. If that was true (and I see no reason to doubt it) Bob Cain was a class act.
Of course soccer has been mentioned in this thread and in professional games a degree of jerk behaviour is accepted. Although not strictly legal, giving everyone yellow and red cards can be taken too far (see Netherlands in Qatar).
In addition to diving in the penalty box, colliding with goalkeepers, shirt grabbing, throw-ins which would be considered sloppy in novice play, crowding the ball after a free kick is awarded, going for the ball cleats up, wasting time with a long series of defensive passbacks, interfering with the keeper on corner kicks, using the defender as leverage when going for a header…