Jump to content

Third Base - Baseball's Hot Corner


DonRocks

Recommended Posts

On 3/11/2018 at 1:27 AM, DonRocks said:

"Don't let the hot corner concept fool you," Mike Schmidt, the greatest third baseman in major league history, said by phone on Thursday. "The third baseman's got his own little corner to protect, some down-the-line pop-ups and a couple of bunt plays here and there, but for the most part, a third baseman can go an entire game and never see any defensive action at all. The shortstop's got to be all over the place on the field. If you play shortstop, you can play anywhere on the field. Going from short to third, it's a walk in the park."

It's a 3 AM walk in Central Park. Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Kepner need to be mindful that airline pilots can sit in the cockpit and play Scrabble while the plane flies itself on autopilot (until they're forced to land in the Hudson River); that policemen spend 99% of their time on patrol driving around, writing traffic tickets, responding to minor calls, and drinking coffee trying to stay awake while they're writing out an entire library's-worth of paperwork (and the other 1% making split-second, life-or-death decisions about whether someone needs to be saved, or killed, while the policeman's would-be executioner has planned out their malevolent course of action for days if not weeks); that soldiers overseas spend their days bored to tears in the desert, wiping sand off their burned, chafed skin (until a suicide bomb hidden in a vest comes walking their way in the form of an elderly lady seeking help). Have another look at the post-game interviews made by Tony Kubek after Game 5 - note in particular his interview with eight-time Gold Glove Award-winning shortstop, Mark Belanger - I only wish Belanger was still around so we could ask him what he thinks of Kepner's questionable descriptor (in an otherwise fine article), and Schmidt's humble and self-deprecating, but ultimately misguided, comments. And remember that over the course of the five-game, 1970 World Series, Brooks Robinson probably touched the baseball for less than 30-seconds, total.

This Sports Illustrated article emphasizes the point I was trying to make above:

Apr 6, 1992 - "Who's on Third?" by Tim Kurkjian on si.com

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...