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Personally, I like stealing in the slow pitch game.
Going off topic a bit here...but I can remember my first time as a player playing in a league that allowed stealing. This was actually about 15 years ago and, if I'm remembering correctly, was an NSA league. I'm not sure if NSA allowed stealing under their standard rules back then or if it was something the league added on its own. I wasn't an umpire in those days so I didn't sweat those kind of details!
Our catcher was a good player, but was playing the catcher's position primarlily because a previous knee surgery had limited his mobility. He could catch the ball just fine, but had a hard time coming up from his crouch.
Once the other team caught on to this they began stealing bases at will! There was just no way our catcher could throw them out after struggling to his feet and getting in a good throwing position.
After the first inning and four or five steals, our coach pulled me from the shortstop position and stuck me behind the plate. Apparently the other team didn't pick up on the fact that there was a new catcher, or if they did just figured we had stuck another random warm body back there.
Their first batter hits a single and on the very next pitch heads for second. I pop up and fire and the throw beats the guy to the bag by a good twenty or thirty feet! The stunned look on his face as he was tagged out was priceless!
There were no more stolen bases the rest of game.
Normally, in games without stealing, the catcher's position isn't my favorite place to be. But on that night being behind the plate created on of my fondest playing memories!
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