What kind of signs / signals have you used to let the first baseman know that your picking at first base as a pitcher with a runner on second?
Saw two kids today back picked at first.
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We had a verbal que that the dugout coach or 1st baseman could use.
Nathan-
Are you referring to: Runners at first and second, first baseman playing behind the runner, and first baseman sneaks back to first base for pickoff from the pitcher?
If yes:
1. It's a rare play. Do you really need it in your playbook?
2. But if you want to run this play, have your pitcher step behind the rubber on the pick so that if the timing is bad, he can abort the throw without balking.
We normally just had some kind of verbal clue....the catcher would say something like "here we go kid" or since a lot of the teams we played knew our 1B name, he would sometimes say a name of a kid who wasn't even on the team.....like "let's go Sammy".....anything to let the 1B know to be expecting it. Sometimes our 1B would make the call if he had noticed that the guy wasn't getting back to 1B after the pitch...same thing. Just some type of verbal to let the catcher know he'd be ready for it.
Coach generally calls it by giving sign to 1b. Catcher gives sign to pitcher. Catcher drops glove when 1b breaks. P spins and throws. Runner gets tagged out. Sno-cones after the game.
With a lefty kids can usually run it on their own since you don't need the catcher involved for timing. Hard to time with a RHP without the catcher's help to me.
So there seems to be some confusion....a backpick isn't the same a the pickoff play that you guys are mentioning. A backpick is a throw to a base from the catcher has caught the pitch...in the OP's question it was at 1B, but have seen it happen at 3B and even a couple times at 2B if the baserunner is really not paying attention.