Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site dciem.UUCP
Path: utzoo!dciem!jeff
From: jeff@dciem.UUCP (Jeff Richardson)
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: baserunning
Message-ID: <393@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Sep-83 10:01:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.393
Posted: Tue Sep 20 10:01:11 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 20-Sep-83 13:36:43 EDT
References: <446@nmtvax.UUCP>, <2282@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M, Toronto, Canada
Lines: 19

"If it's to team A's advantage NOT to send the runner from 1st to
2nd on the wild pitch, because then the next batter would be walked,
then by definition team B will be better off by walking the next batter
even with the runner still on first!" --Dave Sherman

While this statement makes perfect sense logically, it is not necessarily
true in baseball, as the game in question indicates.  (I am not trying to
say that baseball is illogical.)  One of the things that makes baseball
and sports in general interesting, is that not everybody agrees on what
is the best thing to do in a given situation.  By leaving Schmidt on
first, the Phillies indicated that they thought the best defensive move
would be to walk Lefebvre, but they knew that the other team (I can't
remember who it was now) might not necessarily agree, and as I explained
in the article I posted yesterday, leaving Schmidt on first meant that
the fielding team had less to gain by walking Lefebvre, so they were
increasing the probability that they would pitch to him.

                                        Jeff Richardson
                                        DCIEM, Toronto