One of the craziest moments you'll see at a baseball game

[Nevilledog]

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Blake Harris
@BlakeHarrisTBLA
One of the craziest moments you'll see at a baseball game

Cody Bellinger hits a two-run home run, but with Justin Turner running back to first base and Bellinger passing him, it officially becomes a single instead and Bellinger is out

[Faux pas]

1. Lol

I don't think little leaguers would do that

[underpants]

2. Was that today?

Pretty strange.

[teach1st]

3. Yes

It happened today.

[rsdsharp]

4. There's one even more weird. The Harvey Haddix Game in 1959.

Haddix of the Pirates threw 12 perfect innings against the Braves. 12. TWELVE!

In the 13th it fell apart. Felix Mantilla reached on a throwing error to end the perfect game, and then was sacrificed to second by Eddie Mathews. Haddix intentionally walked Henry Aaron to set up the double play. He got it, but not the way he wanted.

Joe Adcock hit a home run to right center. Mantilla scored, and Aaron thinking it was a double instead of a home run, believed Mantilla had scored the winning run and ran to the dugout. Adcock passed him, and was called out. Aaron was called out for leaving the bases for what would have been the inning ending double play. Instead, the game was over. Instead of a perfect game, instead of losing 3-0, Haddix lost a 1 hitter by a score of 1-0.

[The Magistrate]

6. My Favorite Pitcher, Sir

We were Pirates fans all the way when I was a kid.

[rsdsharp]

7. Hats off to the Kitten.

[First Speaker]

8. There's another famous incident like this involving Lou Gehrig...

...in I think it was 1931, he hit a home run but because he looked down when he was running the bases, he was called out after passing a runner ahead of him. This mattered, because he and Ruth ended up tied with 46 homers apiece, and his mistake cost him the home run championship--and gave Ruth his last one, at least a piece of it. That was typical, really--Ruth was lucky; Lou wasn't. Another example: in 1932, Lou finally would make the front pages when he hit four homers in one game. Alas--that was the day John McGraw resigned as manager of the Giants. So he was relegated to the back pages again...

[rsdsharp]

12. Gehrig played in Ruth's shadow until the Babe was released after the 1934 season.

And then DiMaggio came along in ‘36.

Case in point: Everybody knows about Ruth’s called shot in the 1932 World Series. How many know that Gehrig hit a home run immediately after? Back-to-back dingers in the World Series, and only one is remembered.

[Generic Brad]

5. Know your rules!

Athleticism will only get you so far. There is no substitute for knowing the rules and remaining focused.

[gratuitous]

10. Watch the play again

Turner's on first, Bellinger hits to deep left center. Turner runs from first and rounds second, watching the play in front of him. Just as Turner rounds second Rockies left fielder Tapia gloves the ball, and it's lost to sight for a second. Bellinger has rounded first by this time, and Turner thinks that Tapia has caught the ball.

What Turner didn't see is that the ball squirted out of Tapia's glove beyond the fence for a home run. Turner thinks Tapia has flagged down the long drive, and sprints back to avoid getting doubled off first. Bellinger is watching left field, too, where Tapia is trying to figure out where the ball is, if it's still in the field of play. Bellinger stops between first and second as Turner sprints by him on his way back to first.

It wasn't a question of someone not knowing the rules, but a bizarre circumstance when the lead runner couldn't tell what had happened to the batted ball, and trying to avoid a double play. Bellinger's out for passing the runner ahead of him (even though it was Turner who caused Bellinger to "pass" him by running back to first), and Turner is awarded home because of Bellinger's home run.

Interestingly, this happened with one out, so Turner's run was counted, but if there had been two outs, Bellinger would be called out as soon as Turner ran by him on his way back to first, and the run wouldn't be counted. Of course, if there had been two out, Turner would have just kept running because the double play wouldn't have been in order.

[ironflange]

11. It was an honest mistake

[kacekwl]

9. Watch your base coaches.

Hopefully they know what is happening.