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One more question from earlier in our season.  Runner on 1st attempting to steal 2nd.  Our catcher pops up and makes a great throw, which goes right over the base chest high, but no one covered and it sailed into CF.  Advancing runner takes 3rd as a result.  Catcher says SS was supposed to cover.  Everyone on the team agrees that on that particular play it was the SS responsibility.  (I never heard the SS take on it).

I feel bad giving the E2 on a well-thrown ball.  But I know that mental errors or failure to cover mistakes are not given errors.  Our official scorekeeper ended up recording it as an advance on a PB - not because he thought it was a PB, but because he didn't want to ding the catcher with an error he felt he didn't deserve.

What is the right way to score this?

 

 

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Simple....get a new SS & 2B  .....there is no excuse for nobody to cover the bag on a steal attempt.  It's the responsibility of those two guys to know who is covering on each particular play.  My SS & 2B would communicate before every batter when there was a guy on 1B.....if they didn't and nobody covered, they both ran the next practice. 

Perhaps your scorekeeper should be told that errors aren't about evaluating the quality of throws. They are about accounting for how batters and runners reach base and advance.  

Lots of infielders make terrible throws that end up as successful defensive chances because first basemen make great scoops, stretches, or swipe tags. Lots of awful throws from the outfield end up as nothing because a fortuitous backup or rebound prevents an advance. Does your scorekeeper want to start charging players with errors for bad throws, regardless of how the play turns out?

Also, I'm curious as to how she thinks charging the catcher with a phantom PB helps him more than charging him with the error that properly explains the runner's subsequent advance.

Last edited by Swampboy

In my book, it did go as a SB, E2 to third.  But I'm just the backup SK, didn't happen in the official. And yeah, I'm not sure how a PB helps. Thanks for confirming the correct scoring.

Apparently the SS did signal that he was covering, but it wouldn't be the first time he stood at the edge of the dirt and watched the play unfold.  We have 21 E6's (!) in our 24 games.  Barely over .800 fielding %, and that's being generous at times, and with several successful plays assigned to him that he had nothing to do with.  (Sorry for tangent rant - SS is the son of the HC)

I've seen some interesting things from SKs this year.  We just had our last high school playoff game, and the opposing team put an error up for our team on the scoreboard for a hit batter!  Another local team has a player whose stats show 41 stolen bases in 24 games, and 114 SB for the team.  I'm thinking that SK has no idea what a WP or PB is.  Same kid has 42 hits and has only reached on error one time.  Possible - maybe.  Likely? - no.

 

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