Baseball is a game of deception. We see the most deception on the mound, where pitchers try to keep batters guessing every time they wind up.
Videos by FanBuzz
However, the bases are where we see the second most trickery. I remember being shocked when I learned you can just keep on going to second base after getting walked. My team had this play where if you got walked and a guy was on third, you didn't break stride until you reached second or found yourself in a pickle to distract from the guy on third breaking towards home. My 11-year-old brain about exploded.
We've seen hidden ball tricks over and over, and of course, stealing bases is the most blatant form of deception. One baserunner in a high school baseball game took this to a whole another level with possibly the ballsiest stolen base of all time. Oh, he was stealing home, too.
HS Baseball Player Steals Home Amidst Confusion
RELATED: Runner Cleverly Steals Home After Catcher Trips Over His Ego
There are a lot of random sounds going on here, so I'm using my bat sonar to break it all down. First, we hear what sounds like a pitching machine? jug machine? Catapult? Some sort of launching noise before the pitch. Not important necessarily, but it adds to the confusion. Then, a split second later, we hear what appears to be a balk call, but you can't make it out. It kinda sounds like the call the home plate umpire would make when calling a strike. However, we see the home plate blue make a strike call a split second after that.
The baserunner trots back to third base, but his teammates in the dugout start going crazy in reaction to the balk call. He proceeds to trot down the baseline and crosses the plate directly in front of the catcher, who's holding the ball trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
A lot of the comments blame the catcher for the blunder. The cheering from the dugout may have thrown him off because he thought it was ball four as the caption indicates, but the ump clearly calls a strike. It shouldn't matter anyway unless the bases were loaded, which we can safely assume they weren't because we don't see a second-base runner make his way to third.
The cathcer was probably confused by all the random noises happening within seconds of each other and didn't process what was going on until it was too late. In hindsight, he should've tagged the runner to be safe rather than just stand there. In his defense, though, the fact the runner had the guts to go for home is enough to throw him off. Who does that?
Maybe, like my team back in the day, it was a planned play. It goes to show that if there is a chance to get ahead on the diamond, you should take it. Baseball is a game of inches, too.
