How to Watch Baseball

The Squeeze Play

It Can Be Suicide or Murder

George Kell, from the photograph printed with his chapter.

By George Kell,Third Baseman, Boston Red Sox

Pages 18–19 · Phillips Petroleum Company, 1953

Squeeze plays are classified as: 1 — the suicide squeeze; 2 — the safety squeeze.

The suicide squeeze gambles big for a vital run even under such conditions as: 1 — none out or one out; 2 — the batter is not a long hitter; he is a very good bunter.

The distinguishing note of the suicide squeeze is that the runner breaks for home plate before the batter bunts the ball. That is why it is called the suicide squeeze. If the batter misses the ball or pops it into a double play, it’s suicide. But if he bunts it safely, it’s murder.

The successful suicide squeeze should not be tipped off. The runner on third should not take an extra long lead. He should not break until the precise instant the pitcher is about to release the ball. The batter should not choke his bat or shift his feet until that same instant. Otherwise, the pitcher, spotting such tip-offs, can fire a high, fast ball close to the batter’s head, practically impossible to bunt.

To preclude tip-offs, the runner should take a substantial, yet not a revealing, lead. He should simulate relaxation, unconcern. He should break for the plate at the precise instant the pitcher is about to release the ball. Any premature movement will warn the pitcher in time, even if he has already begun his wind-up.

Regardless of where the ball is pitched, the batter must try to get his bat on it. With one or no strikes it’s better he miss it than bunt it into the air, fair or foul, for a double play. With two strikes, a clean miss will mean a double play anyhow — strikeout and easy tag out. It’s better, of course, for the batter to bunt a ground foul than miss entirely at any time.

If the batter can bunt the ball fairly on the ground, he needn’t aim it. Pitcher, third baseman or first baseman seldom can make a play at the plate in time.

The safety squeeze, unlike the suicide squeeze, needn’t be attempted on a designated pitch, because the runner does not break until the batter has bunted the ball along the ground. Again, the runner takes a substantial, not a revealing lead. He gauges himself to permit a safe return to third should the batter pass up the pitch, miss it or pop it up.

The batter waits for a suitable pitch: low fast ball, low breaking ball or change-of-pace. He tries to bunt it to the right or left of the pitcher just hard enough so the pitcher can’t field it successfully. On such a bunt, the runner on third will score. And the batter may even beat out an infield hit, although his prime purpose is to score the runner.

So, when the game is close in late innings, a runner on third and one out, and the hitter isn’t a slugger,

The Suicide Squeeze
  1. 1The runner on third takes a substantial, but not revealing, lead. He simulates relaxation, unconcern.
  2. 2He breaks for the plate at the precise instant the pitcher is about to release the ball. Any premature movement warns the pitcher.
  3. 3Regardless of where the ball is pitched, the batter must get his bat on it — on the ground, and he need not aim it.
  4. 4The pitcher reaches it — but he is moving away from the plate, and the runner is already inside him.
  5. 5Pitcher, third baseman or first baseman seldom can make a play at the plate in time. The run scores.
Adapted from the diagram on page 19: “On the suicide squeeze, the runner breaks with the pitch. If the batter bunts ball properly, the defense is hamstrung, the run is certain.”