How to Watch Baseball

Foiling Double Steals

No Siesta for the Catcher

Roy Campanella, from the photograph printed with his chapter.

By Roy Campanella,Catcher, Brooklyn Dodgers

Pages 26–27 · Phillips Petroleum Company, 1953

The double steal can be broken up in several ways. In all of them the catcher plays the key role. The purpose of the double steal is to advance two base runners without help from the batter. It is most commonly used with runners on first and third. In this situation, the intent is either:

1 — To score the runner from third and move the runner from first to second, in scoring position.

2 — Merely to advance the runner from first to second so that both runners will be in scoring position.

A team trailing by several runs does not attempt the double steal, because the defensive team could afford to ignore the possibility of the runner on third scoring and concentrate on retiring the runner on first trying to reach second.

The double steal usually is attempted when both base runners represent vital runs. The defense is successful if it can catch one of the runners without permitting the other to advance. Or if it can catch the runner on third trying to score, even if the runner on first reaches second.

In the double steal, the runner on first starts for second with the pitch. The catcher now must make a rapid-fire decision. As he receives the pitch he should glance quickly toward the runner on third. If the runner on third has committed himself too soon or taken too long a lead, the catcher can instantly forget the runner heading for second and concentrate on the runner on third.

However, if the catcher sees the runner on third has not committed himself or taken too long a lead, the catcher, almost simultaneously with his glance toward third, should fire the ball toward second, making sure to keep his throw low.

The shortstop covers the bag, but the second baseman cuts over some ten to 15 feet in front of the bag in direct line with the catcher and pitcher. The second baseman has the runner on third in front of his vision. If he sees him break for the plate as the catcher fires the ball, he cuts off the throw and fires it back to the catcher. If both throws, catcher’s and second baseman’s, are accurate and cleanly handled, the runner from third should be an easy out at the plate.

If the second baseman sees that the runner on third does not break for the plate as the catcher fires the ball, then he allows the catcher’s throw to go through to the shortstop. If the catcher’s throw arrives at second on time, the shortstop can tag out the runner.

If the catcher does not want to risk the long throw to second, he has two other alternatives. He can bluff a throw to second and then fire the ball to third in the hope the runner there will have been lured off the bag by the bluff. Or he can fire the ball back to the pitcher, a trick which sometimes also lures the runner off third, so that the pitcher can trap him. The trouble with these two methods is that the runner on third may not be bluffed.

So the next time there are runners on first and third in a double steal situation,

Foiling the Double Steal
  1. 1The runner on first starts for second with the pitch. The runner on third takes his lead — and holds.
  2. 2As he receives the pitch, the catcher glances toward the runner on third.
  3. 3Seeing the runner on third has not committed, the catcher fires toward second, keeping the throw low — and the runner on third breaks for the plate as he lets it go.
  4. 4Ten to fifteen feet in front of the bag, in direct line with the catcher and pitcher, the second baseman cuts the throw off.
  5. 5He fires it back to the catcher. With both throws accurate, the runner from third is an easy out at the plate.
Adapted from the diagram on page 27: “On the double steal, runner from third may find himself trapped, if second baseman cuts off catcher’s throw, and fires home accurately.”