As a teenager, I had a summer job coaching youth baseball in my hometown. I remember once, in a t-ball game, a kid hit a weak grounder to the first baseman, who fielded the ball in front of the base. Instead of touching first base, the first baseman decided he'd tag the batter as he ran past him. So the the kid who hit the ball just stopped in the baseline. For a second or more, the two boys contemplated one another from a distance of a few feet before the first baseman, evidently having forgotten that he only had to touch first, advanced toward the stalled runner to tag him. The kid who hit the ball then retreated toward home. This baseball play ended with the first baseman throwing the ball to the catcher, who tagged the runner as he slid into home from the first baseline.
The parents were hootin' and hollerin' and I guessed they might be wondering what the coach was teaching their kids about baseball. But check out the above video of a play earlier this year in an mlb game, Cubs versus Pirates. No reason for me to have felt bad about what my t-ballers did. Fyi, there were two out (in the Pirates-Cubs game). I like how the broadcaster, when the craziness apparently had come to an end, shouts, "Run! Keep running!" That's what parents, understanding that no one in the field can throw or catch, yell at their kids when they stop at a base before the other team has corralled the ball.
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