How to Watch Baseball

The Double Play

A Lifeline for the Pitcher

Red Schoendienst, from the photograph printed with his chapter.

By Red Schoendienst,Second Baseman, St. Louis Cardinals

Pages 30–31 · Phillips Petroleum Company, 1953

There are two types of double plays: accidental and planned.

The accidental double play is neither planned nor controlled. For example, there is a man on first with one out. The team at bat attempts the hit and run. The runner on first breaks for second. The batter hits the ball solidly, but he hits a line drive right at the first baseman. The first baseman runs over and touches first before the runner can return. He thus completes a double play, easily.

The planned double play takes place with no outs or one out and with (1) a man on first, (2) men on first and second, (3) men on first and third, (4) the bases full.

No planned double play from a ground ball is possible without good pitching. The pitcher is the key. He must make the batter hit a low-breaking ball, usually a curve ball or a sinker. The sinker is a fast ball which breaks downward.

After the pitcher has succeeded in making the batter hit the ball on the ground, the next important factor is the man who fields the ball. Often, you’ve seen a base runner upset a pivot man so that he couldn’t throw, or, if the throw was attempted it went wild. Maybe you blamed the pivot man. You figured he lacked agility or a strong arm or both. More likely than not, he wasn’t at fault. His troubles, probably, traced to a bad throw from the fellow who fielded the ball.

A double play stands little chance of completion unless the man who fields the ball gets it away quickly and accurately. Quickly doesn’t mean the speed of his throw but the quickness with which he gets rid of the ball. This, of course, presupposes that he picks up the ball cleanly. However, sometimes a fielder can fumble and still get off a toss in time to start a double play.

Accurately doesn’t mean a throw that a pivot man can reach and hold. The throw has got to be a lot more accurate than that. It should be so accurate that the pivot man can handle it without bending and stretching and relay it to first without extra motion.

Of course, some pivot men are more agile and clever and have stronger throwing arms than others. They can spear a bad throw while off balance and get it to first, still off balance, in time to complete the double play. But even this type of pivot man will not complete a satisfactory number of double plays unless the men who field the grounders feed him with a reasonably high percentage of quick, accurate throws.

A good first baseman can help a lot. He can make the catch a split second earlier, if he has a long reach and can stretch his legs widely instead of waiting for the ball to come to him. The split second he saves frequently makes the double play successful.

So, when a double play situation comes up, remember to

The Double Play Pivot
  1. 1The batter hits a low-breaking ball on the ground to short. The runner breaks for second; the batter runs it out.
  2. 2The shortstop gets it away quickly — not with speed of throw, but quickness in getting rid of it — and flips to the bag.
  3. 3He does not appear to have his foot on the bag; in full motion he ticks it with his left foot, then pivots off his right and gets clear before the throw leaves his hand.
  4. 4The runner arrives in a hook slide, well after the pivot man has already gotten rid of it and gotten clear.
Adapted from the diagram on page 31: “To complete double play, the pivot man must escape collision. Here, second baseman eludes slider by touching bag with left foot, pivoting on right.”