It’s a bird, it’s a plane. No? IT’S A TOOTBLAN!

Early in the 2018 season, two teams made plays on the basepaths that should be hung in the wall of shame. Five outs were made in these plays, and they deserve a look, and then a re-look.

Let’s start with this one.

We’re gonna play a game called “what do you do?” Say you’re a guy who gets caught on a pickoff at first base. To save face you get into a pickle between first and second. You’re probably hoping that maybe the guy on third gets enough time to run home, right?

Now, say you’re that guy on third and you see this happen, so you start inching towards home. It’s important to note that you’re inching, not running. That decision to inch gives the pitcher enough time to throw you out at home, leaving the guy at first plenty of time to get to second, or even potentially third.

Let’s go back to the guy on first. Say all this happens. Do you?

A) Hightail it to third, realizing you’ve just gotten an out but at least leave someone in scoring position?

B) Stop at second, because you’ve really boned this one and you shouldn’t press your luck?

C) Run for third, but when the guy gets tagged out at home causing only the second out of the inning you start to jog and walk for third assuming the inning is over?

Don’t pick C, Rhys Hoskins. Just don’t. The perfect definition of a TOOTBLAN.

Now let’s look at the second boneheaded baserunning play:

Sure, this isn’t quite baserunning, or a TOOTBLAN, but what the hell is Evan Gattis doing? As a baseball player, you have more than one job every game, but a big part of that job is counting to three. Hoskins and Gattis could use a quick refresher. I’ll do them one better, and offer them this video from Feist teaching them to count all the way to four.

Also, fun fact: this song is over 10 years old!