Wacky Plays Part I
 

Reading about the batted ball hitting fallen helmet spot on got me to thinking of the weirdest one I ever saw. Rules don't matter; this is pure Serlingville.

B1 hits sharp liner to F1. The sphere hits his glove. In chronological order.

a) glove flies off.
b) ball heads directly skyward.
c) glove lands on ground.
d) ball (I swear) lands in glove.
e) F1 sticks hand in glove, holds it up with ball, which never touched terra firma.

Since I am a man of constant truth, I must admit I stood, mouth agape :eek: ... and made no call. But, praise be the specter of Nestor Chylak, B1 just stood there. F1, smarter than all of us, threw to F3 for the out, which was signaled by my mouth-also-agape partner. Then a beat. Then gales of laughter from all involved, including fans, B1 and his coach.

Flame away for my not giving the "no catch" mechanic. Hey, I was much younger; at least I didn't signal the out.

Your turn, gang. First-hand stories only, no urban legends.

Ace

Being a young buck, I haven't had anything to wacky, but I'd say the wierdest one was the Triple Play I had.

Sacs full, 0 outs (obviously). Line drive to third, very close catch/no catch. I'm PU, I come up screaming "NO CATCH" with the mechanic. Fielder obviously felt the same way, cause he ran and touched 3rd, then tagged R3 who was confused and was just standing flatfooted off the base. We have 2 outs.

I call time to walk back to the dish and clean it off, and realize we have a bit of a problem. I wasn't sure of it, so I called BU in.

The batter never ran to first. The guy standing on second had been retired already. R1 never moved either. Batter was standing in the dugout. After we asked the book what number just batted (without telling them why, didn't want to divulge what we were discussing), I banged the Batter out for abandonment. Coach was confused, I explained twice while BU kept other coaches away. Once he understood, the coach simply smiled and walked back to his dugout and told the kids to take the field.

Desertion. Abandonment can only happen after a runner reaches first base.

Probably a 9.01C situation to call a BR out for desertion after making the ball dead by calling time. But what else is there to call if the BR is in the dugout?