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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Intentionally dropping the bunt
Neyer recounts the play:
Anderson bunted, all right ... straight into the air, giving Jerry Hairston plenty of time to make the catch. But Anderson didn’t run. Hairston noticed, and—this is the part I’m always begging to see—he let the ball drop, picked up and fired to second for the out there, after which the shortstop relayed the ball to first base to complete the double play (Anderson did finally run, but was a couple of steps too late.
This is my position on the “hustling”. Treat the least important, least valuable play in a regular season game as more important than the most important, most valuable play in pre-game drills.
At the very least, what you are saying is that this non-valuable game-action play can be considered just another pre-game drill. I am shocked and disappointed that some people in this blog think it’s ok to coast on some plays in the regular season that you would otherwise hustle on in a pre-game drill.
There are two things wrong with that:
1. You are giving up extra drill time in actual game-action. Why do that? Why not actually treat the actual game as a pre-game drill? What, you’ll hustle off the mound to cover 1B in an orchestrated bunt drill, but you won’t do that in an actual game, because you think the guy is going to be out anyway? Treat it as a drill!
2. By creating the mindset that every play in an actual game is at least as important as the most important pre-game drill, you never (EVER) get into a situation that the 900-game player found himself in.
I’m not saying that you have to hustle on even the most routine ground-ball. I am saying that you need to put in at least as much effort as you would in a pre-game drill. And never (EVER) less. If you won’t give up on a bunt in a pre-game drill, then it’s inexcusable to give up on a bunt in an actual game.
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