Let's chuckle at these 7 runners who immediately regretted their decisions on the basepaths

How do you plan to celebrate Take a Chance Day this fine April morning? I guess you could go skydiving. Or listen to ABBA's "Take a Chance on Me" on repeat (though that's just a normal day, so ....)

We think the best way to honor this holiday of reckless excitement is with the TOOTBLAN, or, Thrown Out On The Bases Like a Nincompoop. 

Sure, a TOOTBLAN is frustrating if you have a rooting interest in the game, but if you're just watching for fun there's nothing better than seeing a player put their head down and attempt to zoom their way around the bases before a well-placed throw nails them. 

Yes, Alex Gordon probably would have been thrown out to end the World Series had he tried to score from third, but you have to admit that would have been an extremely excting couple of seconds while he tried. 

So in honor of Take a Chance Day, enjoy the very best TOOTBLANS in recent history. 

Fred Merkle

The proto-TOOTBLAN.

The TOOTBLAN that we dare not speak its name. 

The TOOTBLAN to end all TOOTBLANs. 

These are some of the ways we describe Merkle's Boner (as the play came to be known), a baserunning error so bad that we're still talking about it 107 years later. 

(Image via Wikimedia Commons)

With the New York Giants and Chicago Cubs locked in a fierce pennant battle on Sept. 23, 1908, the game was tied 1-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth. Merkle hit a single to put runners on the corners and Giants shorstop Al Bridwell seemingly won the game with an RBI single to center field a batter later. 

Only problem: Merkle never touched second base, retreating back to the dugout after the run scored and fans stormed the field -- which was common at the time. 

This time, though, Johnny Evers grabbed the ball (or "a" ball, depending on who you believe) and tagged the base for the out. 

Because of the fans on the field and the encroaching darkness, the game was called off and ruled a 1-1 tie. When the two teams then finished the season with identitical 98-55 records, the contest was replayed, this time with the Cubs winning 4-2. It was the TOOTBLAN to lose a pennant. 

Ryan Theriot

The man with an engine that never quits was the very inspiration for the TOOTBLAN, earning his name "The Riot" either for his name or by taking plenty of risks on the bases. Even though he had a fairly respectable 71 percent stolen base success rate, the enduring image of him is doing things like this: 

Really, Theriot is the Velvet Underground of TOOTBLANs. 

Travis Snider and Gaby Sanchez

This one is less of a TOOTBLAN and more of a "Oh my God. Did I leave the oven on? I better call someone to go check." Following a walk, Travis Snider forgot there wasn't a runner on first base and started ambling towards third. Naturally, Gaby Sanchez then politely vacated the bag to accomodate him.

Shockingly, this one isn't all that rare. Robinson Cano pulled it off last Wednesday. 

Yasiel Puig

Yasiel Puig is the Schrodinger's Cat of Major League Baseball. Any time he steps on the field you have the possibility of true wonder and glory, like a cannon throw from right field or a bat flip to the heavens. You also have a very good chance that he'll circle the bases like he's Circe lost in the Underworld. 

He even turned into the ultra-rare and hard to obtain triple play TOOTBLAN: 

Which would you rather have: A number of boring plays where runners go from station to station, which is the equivalent of the standard big budget three act movie, or the chance where anything can happen and chaos reigns? I'll take chaos, thank you.

Fujia Chu

TOOTBLANs aren't restricted to just the Majors, either. During the 2013 World Baseball classic, China's Fujia Chu fell prey to this phantom foul ball. If this happened to me, I'd argue for the "C'mon, guys. Let's just do a replay," rule. 

Ruben Rivera

This is less a TOOTBLAN and more a poetic ballet on the nature of baserunning and man's fallibility. Just watch the greatest of all videos:

Nori Aoki

As for your 2015 leader, here you go. Nori Aoki has been doubled off twice, picked off and thrown out trying to take an extra base for a Majors-leading four TOOTBLANs.

Though Aoki only TOOTBLANed six times last season, he was tied for fourth-most with 13 in 2013. Will he finally finish the year in the lead? Only time will tell.

Of course, sometimes TOOTBLANs don't become TOOTBLANs, instead turning into transcendent pieces of improvisational comedy hidden inside an action film. Like when Josh Harrison did this to the Rockies: 

So, to all baseballers everywhere, take heart on Take a Chance day and run without a care for the consequences. Because that's fun. 

(Deepest of thanks to the TOOTBLAN Tracker for their insanely researched TOOTBLAN database.)