Like many young boys who grew up in the ‘60s, I was exposed to baseball at a young age. While I never excelled in the sport, I did play little league baseball with friends from my neighborhood and school.
Growing up in western Pennsylvania one couldn’t help but be a Pittsburgh Pirate fan. Off course all my friends idolized Roberto Clemente who even to this day, is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
Sadly, as I’ve aged, I’ve lost interest in most professional sports and today, would have a difficult time naming even one of the players on the current Pirate roster.
Nevertheless, when I came across this recent story and video clip of what is referred to as a Little League Home Run, I thought I’d share it in the hope that it brings a smile to your face.
After Striking Out
Guardians Prospect Circles the Bases to Score
by Dan Gartland
Sports Illustrated, September 7, 2023
One of the stranger rules in baseball is the one that allows a batter to attempt to reach base safely after a third strike. It’s always funny to watch a batter realize that the catcher dropped the pitch and turn quickly to sprint to first, but rarely does the batter actually reach base on a strikeout. Guardians prospect Tyresse Turner did something on Wednesday that’s even more rare.
In the third inning of the Lake County Captains’ game against the Lansing Lugnuts, Turner swung and missed at a pitch in the dirt. Lansing catcher Carlos Amaya couldn’t corral it and so Turner took off for first. That’s when things got weird.
Amaya’s throw to first sailed over the head of the first baseman, and Turner was off to the races. By the time the Lansing defense retrieved the ball and fired it back to the plate, the speedy Turner was sliding home, having scored on a strikeout.
The term Little League Homer gets thrown around a lot when a series of errors leads to a run, but scoring plays don’t get much more amateurish than that. It should have been a totally routine play. Turner wasn’t even running at full speed toward first because Amaya had plenty of time to make the play, and then Amaya airmailed the throw a good three feet over the head of his first baseman. Yikes.
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