Who does this?

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,854
113
Just received a phone call from a coach asking me about what I would do if my team was being short gamed and the opposing coach used the squeeze bunt with no outs in the last inning. (5th inning) I was a little taken back by this. I've never seen this but one time. It happened to me in baseball a very long time ago in the state tournament when we ran out of pitching and I had to put a sophomore pitcher in who had limited time on the varsity. I had two seniors who many coaches would have put in but I just could not. They were on two days rest after we were forced to play back to backs due to weather. To this day, I can't talk to that coach without getting hacked off. My answer was to signal in a bean ball for the next hitter. This sophomore stepped back, look at me and then said to me, "coach, you don't really want me to hit this kid do you?" I called time, walked out, told the kid what a good kid he was and that we'd play hard and finish that inning no matter what. I then walked up to that coach and told him that my pitcher was a better man than me and that I was going to drill his player in the head. I learned a lot that day about my kids.

Well, as you can see, this is something near and dear to my heart. Who would do this? Why?
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
I was waiting see how this went because you are a valuable poster, no one is responding though so I thought I take a crack.

Have trouble understanding your post, hope I am wrong but you have a bean ball signal?

I think DD has drilled 1 batter on purpose, not called from me or bench. I think she also tried to drill a 3rd base coach once, she missed. She got the batter though, it had to hurt.

What is the general bean ball signal?
 

sluggers

Super Moderator
Staff member
May 26, 2008
7,133
113
Dallas, Texas
Great story. We can get too wrapped up in the game. It is easy to forget what we are really trying to do. It is good to have a player remind us of what we aspire to be.

One time I lost it.

The opposing teams third baseman was stealing signs. I asked her not to do it. She, of course, ignored me. I asked the opposing coach nicely to stop. It was his daughter, so of course he thought it was funny.

I was young and stupid. So, I changed the indicator. In the appropriate situation, I used the old indicator and gave the bunt sign. Then I used the new indicator and gave the hit and run sign (mandatory swing).

3B goes charging in and ends up about 10 feet from the batter. The batter takes a full cut at the ball, and luckily misses. 3B comes back white as a sheet.

I'm still ashamed of myself for that little piece of stupidity.
 
Last edited:
Mar 4, 2018
126
28
Great story. We can get too wrapped up in the game. It is easy to forget what we are really trying to do. It is good to have a player remind us of what we aspire to be.

One time I lost it.

The opposing teams third baseman was stealing signs. I asked her not to do it. She, of course, ignored me. I asked the opposing coach nicely to stop. It was his daughter, so of course he thought it was funny.

I was young and stupid. So, I changed the indicator. In the appropriate situation, I used the old indicator and gave the bunt sign. Then I used the new indicator and gave the hit and run sign (mandatory swing).

3B goes charging in and ends up about 10 feet from the batter. The batter takes a full cut at the ball, and luckily misses. 3B comes back white as a sheet.

I'm still ashamed of myself for that little piece of stupidity.

Nothing to be ashamed of. You politely asked the coach to stop and she did not. Everything is fair game then. Sometimes you have to get your point across and your first request did not work. Just doing your job.
 

Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,854
113
I was waiting see how this went because you are a valuable poster, no one is responding though so I thought I take a crack.

Have trouble understanding your post, hope I am wrong but you have a bean ball signal?

I think DD has drilled 1 batter on purpose, not called from me or bench. I think she also tried to drill a 3rd base coach once, she missed. She got the batter though, it had to hurt.

What is the general bean ball signal?

Great question! I had a signal for the hitter's hands. This young man didn't have the kind of control my other pitchers had and we had covered that he would not throw up and in because he might hit someone. It is actually a very long story which involves the number of touches for the up and in. I appreciate the comment about being a valuable poster but I have never said that I am perfect. I love my kids and when this coach bunted, he was rubbing it in. We had beaten them before but with my #1 beating his #1. BTW, this coach was a former player of mine which was another reason I could not believe he was doing it. I think emotionally, that made it worse. Finally, I would hope that members her gleaned from my post that I learned from my young pitcher.
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
Nothing to be ashamed of. You politely asked the coach to stop and she did not. Everything is fair game then. Sometimes you have to get your point across and your first request did not work. Just doing your job.

I don’t really think everything is fair game at any point.

We all make mistakes and we all use bad judgement. It is a terrible feeling when you make that mistake and then realize what could have happened.

When it is a mistake that could cause serious injury, well for me that’s off the table no matter how annoyed I am with a player (a child). There is a point where you have to step back and realize it’s just a game and if I can’t figure out a better way to deal with it I probably should be in the stands not the dugout.
 
Jun 6, 2016
2,714
113
Chicago
I've read this a few times and I think I'm missing something. Or I'm not understanding.

What is wrong with a squeeze bunt with nobody out in the last inning? Was it a blowout? In the scenario where the coach called you, I don't see anything to suggest this is wrong.

As for the story of what happened to you, I understand you were short on pitching (maybe even using non-pitchers?), but was the game out of hand?

I'm not arguing or anything here. I guess what I'm asking is when you say "Who would do this?" I don't know what the "this" is.
 

Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,854
113
I've read this a few times and I think I'm missing something. Or I'm not understanding.

What is wrong with a squeeze bunt with nobody out in the last inning? Was it a blowout? In the scenario where the coach called you, I don't see anything to suggest this is wrong.

As for the story of what happened to you, I understand you were short on pitching (maybe even using non-pitchers?), but was the game out of hand?

I'm not arguing or anything here. I guess what I'm asking is when you say "Who would do this?" I don't know what the "this" is.

In the OP, I mentioned that this coach's team was being short gamed. In fact, their opponent had scored 8 runs that last inning giving them 20 runs for the game and they were still running up the score while the coach that contacted me had something in the area of 3 or 4 runs. The squeeze came long after the opponent had enough for the short game. The game ended 20 something to 3 or 4. In my opinion, there is no reason for this.

JD, in the OP, I mentioned that I was in the same situation before and thus the story. Therefore, my outrage.
 
Last edited:
Dec 15, 2018
809
93
CT
In the OP, I mentioned that this coach's team was being short gamed. In fact, their opponent had scored 8 runs that last inning giving them 20 runs for the game and they were still running up the score while the coach that contacted me had something in the area of 3 or 4 runs. The squeeze came long after the opponent had enough for the short game. The game ended 20 something to 3 or 4. In my opinion, there is no reason for this.

JD, in the OP, I mentioned that I was in the same situation before and thus the story. Therefore, my outrage.

Ah, this adds some color. I think there was some confusion over the term “short gamed”, especially when paired with reference to a bunt. Makes sense now though, short gamed = run-ruled / running up score...
 
Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
Nothing to be ashamed of. You politely asked the coach to stop and she did not. Everything is fair game then. Sometimes you have to get your point across and your first request did not work. Just doing your job.

Yes, but if that 3B got seriously injured, it would have been horrible and something most decent humans would deeply regret for the rest of their lives.

I too had one hot-headed poor decision in my coaching career. It was several years ago and I'm embarrassed about it to this day. I learned.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,481
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top