Runner Sneaks to 2nd When No One is Watching 

Kudos to the runner for catching all nine napping.

Really good situational awareness by the runner. He even knew how long it would take for the ball to be caught so he was able to casually jog back to first.

A lot of infield defense coaches tell the 2B and SS that one of them must ALWAYS be near the bag (2nd) when there is a runner on first to avoid this from happening.

Heads up baserunning

Tap tap, ooh, free base! Lol, Anto you do a great job finding these cool baseball moments, I love it! I love when players find whatever it (legally) takes to win!

My grandson's nine year old LL team had a player get a walk and went on to 2nd when the catcher was throwing the ball back to the pitcher. Heads up for a nine year old.

Ya'know who is watching the whole time.... The Umpires. Good job guys.

Baseball is a mysterious magical game. There are so many moving parts to a baseball game. Those players who don't get caught up in just playing but are looking outside the box and really paying attention can make amazing plays. Once, a long time ago, when I was sitting in the third base area seats, I watched Pete Rose casually walk home while 3rd base player, catcher, umpire, and pitcher were not paying attention and they all had this stunned look on their face when he stepped on home, like, "what are you doing here?"

1:44 At least the Umps had their heads in the game

Keep ur head in the game. Always.

I love smart and creative baserunning. Such an underrated aspect of the game. Plays like this one, plays that force the D to make a throw and potentially throw it wild. Tricking the D to throw behind you. I love it!

Baseball is the perfect sport. No two ways about it. I am so grateful to have played this game as long as I have.

You're right, that extra 90 feet can make a huge difference. That's why I don't understand why the sacrifice bunt is so rare these days. The lead off hitter gets on first, the next batter bunts him over. Then you have two good hitters with a chance to drive him home. Oh, how I loved old-time baseball, from the 60s, 70s & 80s.

That's a definite Ron Washington influenced advance.

Loved these types of plays when I played as a kid. Catching the opposing players not paying attention. Was able to nab bases like this and take Home on lazy lob return throws to the pitcher. Smart heads up baseball.

Next-level situational awareness. Jogged over, standing up.

Thanks, Matt. This reminds me of Little League Baseball - my personal, painful experience. We lost a lot and we had our heads down all the time. Hell, I even fell for the hidden ball trick making the last out in one game. Got to high school abd and tried out four years - getting cut each year. But I learned something about Baseball IQ and how not only must you, "Keep your eye everlastingly on the ball," but also that you'd better, "Keep your head evelastingly in the game."

It’s about time the halos do something correct! Thank you to Ron Washington!!!

Baseball is NOT boring!!! Regardless of whose idea it was, it was a brilliant move. Excellent example of high baseball IQ.

Great job with these anecdotes on plays in baseball. Keep it up.

It's the little things like this that makes baseball such a great game.

Way back when I was in Little League a teammate was walked, so jogged to first and casually made a left turn at the bag and jogged to second. He was thrown out because for some reason he felt jogging would be more subtle. I think if a player takes off as soon as he hits first base on a walk he probably has a good chance to make it under the right circumstances.

Thanks for sharing this! I would teach this heads up baserunning to all my youth players for years. Now that they are in high school, some of them are stealing bases with ease, including home! Baseball IQ all the way. I don't care how athletic or strong you are, if you don't have a great understanding of the rules and how to read players and their tendencies, baseball is going to very difficult for them.

Pulled off that play while coaching senior league (12-15 yrs old). My runner casually walked to second base. It was funny as hell.

The catcher puts his hands up like "guys what the hell"

Another way of working this is to just make it a habit of calling for time as soon as you are able. Then you can put your head down and think about the next play. Either way, if the ball is live, never take your eyes off the ball and/or runner.

Had a similar situation when I played softball. I hit the ball pretty much right at the shortstop. He wasn't able to field it cleanly and I made it to first easily. He stared frustratingly into the outfield with the ball at his feet, so I took the opportunity to run to second. Since the ball was at his feet he had to scramble to make a hurried throw and didn't even get it near the second baseman at the bag so it went out into shallow right field where no one was. So I was able to advance to third. Unfortunately we had 2 outs at the time and the next batter was the third out.

My son has elite speed and has made a living preying off dopey pitchers and catchers since he was 8 years old (now 17 and still does it). He did it 6X last year playing rep/travel ball, where the players are 'supposed' to be attuned to this type of thing lol.....a few got angry because they were enbarrassed, and their games imploded after that play...it can be a game changer.

This was GREAT! I see situations like this in so many games, where an aggressive runner could take that extra 90ft...IF...everyone wasn't so conditioned to play station-to-station. This is especially true for teams playing against the A's and other bottom rung teams! Live in bay area and attend many A's game. Every other game, another team moves from 1st to 2nd/2nd to 3rd because players are looking down, away into oblivion! Strange! Fans can actually see it "just" before it happens & start screaming. Players think fans are getting excited for nothing & stay in "oblivion". Then afterward, THE PLAYERS PUT THEIR HANDS ON THEIR HIPS IN DISGUST...AS THE BOOS ERUPTS! I don't see this much in college games! The coaches are too much of a "stickler" and don't patronize the players as the majors do. You either perform or you sit on the bench. Would you or others say, while certainly by no means is college baseball the most proficient, college baseball/AA/3A are still probably the "purest" form of baseball? That is, no regards to name recognition, obviously...no "he's paid blah, blah"! So if a bunt situation is presented, then "THAT" is what is "called", and that's what is "attempted" & "no one" cares about "who" you are. See so many times a guy on 3rd base, no outs and everyone is swinger for the fence, getting struck out, pop out, grounded out, when a halfway decent bunt would bring the guy home as far back as the infield is playing. Why? Because, this guy can't bunt, won't bunt, too proud to bunt. 3 guys in a row & no attempt to bunt! Runner left on 3rd! That is not major league play of yesteryear! However, it's today's standard play.

Beautiful

Angels won 5-4

You're Killing Me Smalls!

Love me some free 90s

Same thing on defense. So many base runners talk to coaches, guys in the dugout, even the defender. An alert pitcher with his teammates wary that he's always watching can pick off nearly 1 batter a game at most levels.

Good job Matt! Thanks a lot

I really enjoy your videos. Keep it up.

Thank you. You can win by the errors the other team makes. Play smart, communicate and know what is happening.

Great fundamentals. Get that ball out of play as soon as you can. Keep your head in the game. Good video.

wow that was Schanuel too barely out of college.

j could be a Baseball fan after watching some cool stuff like this, i like the thinking. Not convinced yet.

comment from OZ. baseball is like soccer, skill, cunning, planning , teamwork. gridiron and rugby, just pure force, no skill, no thought , braIn damage.

my grand kids have using that play for 2 yrs! 8th grade

That's the kind of thing my son used to do in rec ball, but you don't expect to see it in the big leagues!

Credit to the first base coach.

Who had the ball when he took off? Pitcher or first baseman?

That's Nolan Schanuel, whom the Angels recently acquired. The Angels are going to take every break they can, because with Ohtani no longer with them and Trout on the IL, they're going to need them.

One question: baseball has a lot of non-action and maintaining full concentration over that length of time is a feat for champion chess players. How much does one actually have to have full concentration and can you speak to the “mental game”?

To me you should just get the mindset everything matters. There are always different ways to get success not just in Baseball but in other sports to. This play just shows that anything can happen at any time given everything goes right.

Would that make it a sac fly?

Love the strategy.

hustle loyalty respect nobody saw him he was JOHHHNNN CEEEENNNAAAA

I wonder if that was something they noticed in the advanced scouting report.

It reminds me of that one time when a guy stole first base during a power failure and no one noticed until it was too late. I think there was a rule change after that.

Great analysis!!

it’s a big deal… in softball it’s 60 feet but the team i coach is right in that age where the dropped third strike is happening a lot…. Which means we stress like CRAZY getting off of first base to keep it open for the dropped 3rd strike…. tonight we were down 23-7 and we ended up losing 24-25, our comeback strategy was to just run every single pitch

Perfect sac fly

Reminds me of Manny Ramirez on the base paths.

40 years ago I was on 2nd base and the catcher kept lobbing the ball back to the pitcher after every pitch while I was way off the bag. So I decided im going the next time he 🌈 s it back to the pitcher. So as designed I took off and all the other teams coaches and players are screaming at their players “he’s goin he’s goin. I had no intention of going home until the pitcher whips it over to third as I’m about to stop on the base but the third baseman had no clue I just ran behind him or that the pitcher threw it in his direction and the throw went right by him because he was confused as to what everyone was going ballistic about. So I ended up easily going home as the ball was rolling up to the third base side fence. My coach wasn’t sure what happened when I got back to the bench but I do remember him half smiling saying don’t ever do that again The end😅

Reliever comes in ready to pitch

Although I imagine pitcher had the ball…didn’t show or mentioned in vid

Sweet 👍

So when does an umpire call timeout after a play and when do they not?

Baserunner: (after being tapped on his a**) "Yo, dude wtf!!!"... "ohhhhh... got you..."

Free bases!

Okay. You might have cleared-up something for me. Years ago (about 60 to be exact), I was involved in a similar play. I had hit a double and then stolen third. While on third, I noticed that after every pitch, the pitcher would walk toward the catcher to receive the ball and then slowly walk back to the mound with his head down. So, being fleet of foot, I couldn’t let this pass. The next time he walked back to the mound, I broke for home and was called safe. But the plate umpire changed his mind and sent me back to third and said it was a dead ball until the pitcher returned to the mound. So, in this video clip the pitcher hasn’t returned to the mound yet. So, was I actually safe and scored a run, or did these professional umpires blow the call? Which is it?

Good work

classic!

Umps are looking to call time and are looking for the runner to tag up.

Being aware in the. Game

Is it scoed sac fly or a steal?

No fielder on second, that was a literal giveaway.

tell me more about the firstbase coach not suposed to touch the runner.

Pete Rode and Ty Cobb would be proud

Just goes to show that in baseball, there may be no play clock but there is a particular time span when the play is active.

Good rule for life - "Always keep your head in the game." I'll bet that player has probably failed to steal a base lots of times. This time it was successful.

Average salary per is roughly $28k yet nobody can be bothered to watch the base runner. Insane.

Gotta know how many outs there are when the play starts. That’s super important. Maybe I missed something.

So is that considered a stolen base or a sacrifice fly?

Angels have been good at manufacturing runs for a while.

Yea you are taught as a defense and as an offense to be alert at all times and so as a defense and when this ball was caught time out should have been called. But as an offense and defensively you can lull the offense or defense to sleep by doing what this runner did. But the runner realized that nobody had called time out and the defense never called time out. So this was heads up baseball from a base runners perspective

Classic, you can always Advance, defence never sees this , usually oh well let’s all assume he’s gonna stay there, there’s no time out for base runners…

This is why baseball umpires should not grant a timeout whenever a player requests one. I don't know how many times during my umpiring career I refused to grant a timeout when a ballplayer requested one for no apparent reason. My simple response when the did was "Why?". This is not slow pitch softball in which the umpire calls time after every play. Baseball is played with a live ball.

What’s happening here is a man who won’t be denied

Great analysis.

This is why Ichiro was so dangerous. He was always thinking about the next 90 feet.

I'm betting Firsty knew what was gonna happen and figured a lesson was good but made sure to cover his hat.

Change the pitcher from the dugout coach

Is that technically tagging up?

Zapruder would be proud.

In youth leagues, the defensive player is asking for time to prevent this. A good ump will NOT call time until there is truly relaxed play. The umpire is NOT the 10th defensive player!

Now you know, that is just so casual

Where was the ball all this time? In the pitcher's glove??

Is there anything about the first base coach being on the field of play during a live ball? It looks like he’s in fair territory to me.

0:08 Why does he need to go back to 1st? If the fielder drops the ball and then throws to first who is out?

I still prefer cricket, but that was clever.

Whats this scored as?

Is it considered a stolen base?

But doesn't the runner have to stop if the play is yielded by the ball being caught? I'm not too familiar with the rules of baseball, but wouldn't it be a dead ball after it was caught?

Caught ‘em sleeping. No one was covering second.

I did that in highschool a decade ago and got called out by the empire.