Lorenzo Cain tricked the Phillies and may have won the game with a simple point of the finger
One of the first things they teach you when you start playing baseball is always be aware of the situation. If you are on base, you need to know what you're going to do if the ball is hit in the air or on the ground. And if you're in the field, you need to know what you're going to do if the ball is hit to you.
But the human mind is a complex engine calculating zillions of things at a single time, so it's easy to get crossed up. That happened during Wednesday's Brewers-Phillies game.
In the third inning, the Brewers loaded the bases with nobody out and pitcher Gio Gonzalez on third base. That means, if a ball were hit on the ground, every runner would have to run. Now, Gonzalez is a pitcher, so he's not exactly used to running the bases. So, when Ryan Braun hit a ground ball to Phillies third baseman Sean Rodriguez, Gonzalez went back to the bag -- forgetting that there were runners behind him and he had to go home.
That gave Rodriguez a pretty easy double play. He could step on third base, where Lorenzo Cain was running, and then throw home to get Gonzalez. That's where Cain showed off an incredibly heads-up play. He yelled to Rodriguez and pointed to home. That was enough to trick Rodriguez's brain into forgetting that he had a pretty simple double play.
Boom. Instead of two outs, there was only one and the Brewers went on to score three runs that inning thanks to a simple point of the finger.
Of course, some people might argue that what Cain did was bush league -- that you shouldn't try to confuse the opposition. Just like you wouldn't yell "I've got it" on a pop fly -- like Alex Rodriguez once did.
Others would argue that it's simple gamesmanship. After all, pitchers routinely try and trick batters with what pitches they're throwing. The hidden-ball trick is predicated on trickery, so baserunners should be free to point away.
What say you: Is this bush league or big league?
Michael Clair writes for MLB.com. He spends a lot of time thinking about walk-up music and believes stirrup socks are an integral part of every formal outfit.
