Friday, January 05, 2007

The Schaefer Double/Triple Steal

I was cruising around the internet and came across a great story about a deadball era player and a double steal you will not believe. I'll start by asking, how can you possibly get 3 stolen bases on 3 consecutive pitches and still not ever get past 2nd base?
Well, Ghost in the Dugout tells us how.
"The Tigers were playing Cleveland in a close game. (Davy) Jones was on third and (Herman Germany) Schaefer was on first. Schaefer bolted for second, trying to draw a throw from the Indian catcher to give Jones a chance to score on the double steal. The catcher chose not to make the attempt. With Tigers on second and third and Sam Crawford at the plate, it seemed the game would go on in a typical manner. But nothing was typical about Germany Schaefer. On the next pitch, Schaeffer let out a blood curdling scream and sprinted back to first. The catcher was too stunned to do anything but stand there with the ball in his hand. The umpires after a long discussion allowed the "steal" and on the next pitch, Schaefer again took off for second. The third time was the charm; the catcher attempted to throw out Schaefer, Jones took off for home, and both base runners were safe."
Sounds like the "Wild West" of Baseball.

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BP's Year in Quotes

Baseball Prospectus has just released their 2006 "The Year in Quotes." As you can imagine, Grady Little (and his wife) are well represented. Check out their story here.
"Those stats show you a whole lot. But it's like that woman on the beach in a bikini. It shows you a lot, but it doesn't show you everything. I'll never be accused of taking the human element out of it."
Even our old crazy friend Milton Bradley comes up with a good one.
"They swore they wanted character guys, but then they signed a DUI guy and a guy sleeping with a reporter and that's fine, but I got character issues?"