pick off plays

My old team called it "blazer" and our coach would just yell out blazer, blazer. If it works it can really kill a rally

The trick play you are talking about was good for me one year. Out of the 9 times we ran it we were successful 7 times. It was really amazing how many people fell for it. We played a doubleheader against two different teams and it worked against both of them.

Just curious but how far does a team go before the trick play described above becomes "bush?" The reason I ask is that I have seen teams do the exact same play but also had designated parents in on the play who also yelled "go get it." To me that crosses the line. Trick plays are ok as long as done by the players of the team but don't include the fans as part of the deception.

Gotta agree with Spike. Maybe this is a little off topic, a guy at work has a daughter who plays fastpitch softball (10U). Their coach has parents in the stands who he designates to steal signs and relay them to the batter. That just seems a bit over the top.

Back on topic, I saw a college team a few years ago do a hidden ball trick with the runner on 1B. Pitcher strolled to the mound, when he was just far enough off the mound to make it legal he "threw" to first, first baseman dove for the ball, the entire dugout scattered and pointed to where the imaginary ball was. Runner just jogged toward second and was dead meat.

We verbally called the play and our fans got to know it was coming. They never helped us in yelling "get the ball" - at least not that I ever noticed. The problem we had is that when I did call it our players and fans had a hard time keeping a straight face. We never ran it on a team we were beating comfortably and mainly did it to get out of a jam.

One occassion made me wish I didn't call it - tight game because it was 0 - 0 in the sixth. The other team's catcher doubles with one out and they put in a courtesy runner. Well my pitcher was running out of gas and my relief wasn't ready. We ran the play and got the kid BUT after the game the coach told me the kid did have some learning disabilities. He wasn't special ed but he was slower to pick things up. I kind of felt bad about that but karma got me back quickly. We gave up a run in the 7th and had the tying run at 3rd with one out in the bottom of the 7th but couldn't score.

Another time that season my pitcher turned and faked the throw but the ball came out of his hand and he basically spiked the ball into the ground like a touchdown celebration. The guy on second still tried to advance. My pitcher ran over got the ball and threw to third to get him.

One person's bush play is another person's heads up play. Most of the time people who call something bush is mad they are losing or got embarassed on a play like that. Last time I checked it is the other team's job to pay attention to where the ball is - not ours. I won't embarass a team by doing it but if I can get out of a jam then I am for it. It only looks bad on us if the runner doesn't fall for it because we got guys diving all over the place.

I have never been involved in the play other that to witness it in a game where I had no direct interest (other than to just enjoy the game). What I called bush was the involvement of the fans and/or parents. To me, let the players on the field play the game. For the record, I never called the play bush.

Spike I hope you are not taking what I said as a retaliation for what you said about bush league. I was just making some random comments with no intent behind them.

I get a little sensitive about things being called bush because who determines what is bush? In my experience the vast majority of people who say something is bush (this play or something else) are the ones getting beat. They don't like getting beat - especially bad - and start saying things are bush.

I had a coach from another team get royally ticked at me and it ended up that three of his fans got tossed for mouthing at me because we were beating them last season. We showed up and played this team at a third schools field. We scored 5 runs in the first, 5 runs in the second and 2 in the third. Our pitcher was doing a great job on the mound keeping them off the bases. So I start subbing in my reserves and get almost a whole new lineup in quickly. One player I didn't change was my junior catcher becasue I had to play another team after and was going to use my back up catcher in it. Well he sees the third baseman almost playing on the outfield grass - he is deep. Well I am looking into the dugout to see if I can make any more changes - I don't give signs either. Well my catcher tries to drop down a drag bunt. In his defense we preach to look for that and do it then again he should have been smart enough to know it wasn't time for it. Well being down 12 - 0 the other coach gets royally ticked and comes out yelling at me. I wasn't sure he was yelling at me. Well in the top of the fifth inning I have a freshman in the game who was making his varsity debut on second as a runner. I am looking into the dugout to make sure everyone has played. The runner takes off for third because he thought he had the pitcher timed. He got thrown out by 20 feet. I put my arm around him and said I was glad he was looking for that but it wasn't the time to do it. Well the other coach is going nuts now - his fans start in on me and I just look at them. The ump goes over and tells them to settle down and they start getting all over him and he starts using his thumb to tell them where to go. Another thing they got mad about is I never changed pitchers. In my defense he was a senior and that was his only win of the season. I wasn't going to take him out in that situation.

Overall the moral of the story is that I in no way felt he had a right to call me bush for what I did. It's not my job to stop my team - it's his. I won't try to emabarass a bunch of kids on purpose because that is wrong. We only won the game 12 - 0 and by the time the game was over the only starters I had was my pitcher and catcher.

Please don't take this as me getting onto you because that is not my intent. I just hate getting called bush because a team can't get my guys out and I am not trying to run the score up.

Understood. To me "bush" is anything that compromises the integrity of the game. Of course, that too can be very subjective. There are a lot of different types of coaches that have a variety of techniques to try to win and to me that is a good thing. It adds to the interest. My personal belief (and it's only that) is that I want my team to win by outplaying the other team through using better skills and game decisions. Have I ever used a "trick" play? Yes and I don't mind them being used against me. I hope my kids have been coached to the point they don't fall for them but if they do it's a learned lesson.

I also agree that you can't always control your players' actions and they sometimes do things that are inappropriate given the game situation. I was once coaching 3rd and it was the last inning and we were ahead 24 to 0. My leadoff hitter hits a gapper and rounds second. He went right through my hands up to stop sign and came in sliding at 3rd, barely beating the throw. He had committed 3 cardinal sins: ran thru my stop, came to 3rd having to slide (if you have to slide into 3rd where you run the risk of being out #1,dont), and taking a risk to get to an extra base with the score so lopsided and late in the game. Believe me, he learned his lesson. Without embarrassing him, I let him know that was not something I would tolerate. It was very easy for him to get the message.

I also believe fans/parents should not get involved in the game either thru their emotional rants or as thru our original topic: assisting in the execution of a play.

I also agree the word bush carries a lot of sensitivity to those of us who love this game. It evokes a reaction similar to yelling Mafia at an Italian reunion. The word should be used only reluctantly when again, youre talking about hurting the fabric of the game which is its integrity.

Sounds good Spike and I agree totally with everything you said. I am glad we are on the same page.