While watching a baseball game the other day, I had a thought, if there are no players on base, does the fielding team really need to have a catcher? After all, if you didn't play a catcher, you could have an extra infielder or outfielder. I took a quick glance at offical rules governing major league baseball and I didn't see anything that suggested that you have to have a catcher. The only other downside I could see is that to have an official strike out, the catcher has to catch the pitch that the batter swung and missed. Otherwise, the batter can run to first and reach safely if he isn't thrown out or tagged. That certainly would cause you to have to have a catcher if the batter had two strikes on them.
Oh and if you didn't have a catcher, you might piss off the umpire and that's something you wouldn't want to do.
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Comments (1)
Are you only allowed to steal 1st on the 3rd strike by the rules, or is that the only time it is worth the risk to do so?
# Posted by James | June 22, 2006 6:21 PM