Hidden Ball Trick

[Guest iramets]

As you may remember, this is a play I love to see, mainly because I don't actually see it, and everyone in the stands is going "Who? Wha? Huh?" for about fifteen minutes. (I once "witnessed" Marty Barrett pulling it in Fenway. No one knew WHAT the hell happened.) I had the bright idea that Youtube may have documented some instances, so I tried searching there, but I all I came up with was this, which you may have seen already but which I had not:

[DocTee]

Wonder if Barrett got the kind of flak for that play that A-Rod received for his attempt to distract Toronto fielders last week. Both plays were playground-esque (playgroundian?), both worked, yet I suspect Barrett was applauded for being plucky while A-Rod was treated like a villain.

[Farmer Ted]

Here's a hidden ball trick for the ages. A young Farmer Ted was at this game.

http://www.baseballreliquary.org/Bresnahan.htm

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

People keep comparing Arod's play with other forms of deception (hidden-ball, deke catch, etc) but I think there's a difference.

In most plays where deception is used the "victim" has a reasonable chance to see for himself the trickery at hand by glancing at a coach or the play. But a fielder camped under a fly ball has no choice but to concentrate on that task or risk injury and/or a catastrophic fielding mistake.

There's also the issue of Arod's nerve being over the top -- a pop fly to the infield turns into an out 99% of the time, and ought to be an out 100% of the time -- a deliberate attempt to upset those odds just seems over the top to me. In this way it was like the slap -- it was obvious he was going to be out by mile unless he cheated ... so he cheated.

Now maybe Arod for being a blue-lipped asshole to begin with catches more shit than the regular player in this case but part of the reason people hate Arod to begin with is because of his audacity (the slap, the contract the glibness) and that, in the end, few players are big enough assholes to try it.

[Frayed Knot]

]but part of the reason people hate Arod to begin with is because of his audacity (the slap, the contract the glibness) and that, in the end, few players are big enough assholes to try it.

Plus his 'hands in the air / what did I do?' look following the plays.

[Farmer Ted]

The tossing of the bat after every friggin home run. LoDuca should have clocked him.

[Willets Point]

I didn't know Ann Coulter did commercials for FOX Sports.