Bases loaded with Sox. Jacoby Ellesbury steals home, right under the noses of Andy Pettit and Jorge Posada!! He took a nice long lead off third, and as Posada was juggling the ball, slid right under his arm.
Does anyone else actually do it? I've poked around on the internet a couple of times, and either Sox fans are really loud on the internet (duh), or no other Pro Team has stolen home in eons.
Seems that someone manages to do it, somewhere in baseball, about once a year. The most recent instance I can find with my l33t google skillz was a Blue Jay who also stole against Pettit & Posada in 2007.
On SportsCenter this morning they pointed out that most of the time, a steal of home actually takes place on a squeeze play or some other bunt-like play that is set up to bring the runner in. A "straight steal" of home on a regular pitch is much, much rarer.
Ellesbury plays for the Red Sox. The other players can only advance if they don't get caught trying (this is known as "a double steal" and is rare). I have no idea how long stealing home has been allowed - I don't know that it was ever forbidden to try.
According to Baseball Almanac (a great records and trivia source) the record holder is Ty Cobb with _54_ seals of home base. His first was apparently during his first year in the majors in 1905. Most of the record holders in this category though are from the early part of the 20th century. That's due in part to changes in style of play but also because of pitchers pitching from the stretch instead of the windup so as to not give the base-runners a better lead when attempting a steal.
According to post-game interviews, Ellsbury noticed that Petite was pitching from the wind-up. Since the bases were loaded, Petite presumably thought that no one would be stealing (as a straight steal of home is a risky play). Elssbury felt that the wind-up (plus the fact that no one was covering third) gave him enough of a lead to pull-off the unexpected.
The really great thing about this is how it will rattle future pitchers who have him on third. :-)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-04-27 02:17 am (UTC)Eddie Izzard was on the other channel...
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Date: 2009-04-27 06:37 pm (UTC)According to post-game interviews, Ellsbury noticed that Petite was pitching from the wind-up. Since the bases were loaded, Petite presumably thought that no one would be stealing (as a straight steal of home is a risky play). Elssbury felt that the wind-up (plus the fact that no one was covering third) gave him enough of a lead to pull-off the unexpected.
The really great thing about this is how it will rattle future pitchers who have him on third. :-)
Sources:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_stbah.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/
Edit: Cobb had 54 _steals_ of home base. I don't know who the record holder for seals of home was (but odds are that he would have played for the Pacific Coast League)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Seals_(baseball)
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Date: 2009-04-27 01:19 pm (UTC)