Baseball Fundamentals

It was the top of the ninth inning and Johnny Damon had just had a great at bat against Brad Lidge. He had fought off fastballs on the outside corner, seemingly reacting a split second before the pitch would cross the plate. He got a pitch out over the plate and seemingly placed it into left field.

This game was a strange one. New York seemed to be losing the momentum as the game wore on. Joba Chamberlain had served up a mammoth homerun to Pedro Feliz in the bottom of the eighth to even the score at 4-4 and Citizens Bank Park was absolutely electric.

Brad Lidge looked great through two batters. He had Damon in a hole and the Phillies were ready to charge into the dugout for the bottom of the ninth.

Damon battled. He fouled off pitch after pitch until he got one he can handle. The game of baseball is full of cliches and adages. One that always comes to mind in this situation is that the batter's probability of getting a pitch to hit increases as the at-bat is prolonged. So as Damon fouled off the good fastballs from Lidge, you could feel the at-bat swinging into his favor. Lidge didn't want to walk Damon, so he grooved one, and the Yankees left fielder dropped it into left.

That's when things got just plain nutty. Damon took off for second early in the at-bat by Mark Teixeira. He would say after the game that he wanted to give Teixeira the best opportunity in the at-bat, so he broke for second early. The pitch was low and the throw from Carlos Ruiz skipped towards second base. Pedro Feliz was covering (the shift was on to combat Tex batting lefty). The throw pulled him only slightly towards the first base side of the bag.

What happened next just doesn't happen. Damon popped up from his slide, looked at third and took off running. I thought I was watching the Twins or Angels run the bases. I thought that Johnny Damon had been fooled by the player covering the base into thinking the ball got a way and would be easily caught in a run down to end the inning. I thought even more momentum was going to swing to the Phillies. But there was no one at third base. Lidge had ducked on the mound when the throw went through, Ruiz hadn't hustled down to cover, and the bag was there for his taking. Two stolen bases, one play. Johnny Damon changed the entire complexion of the inning, game, and the series. Teixeira was hit by a pitch and then Alex Rodriguez followed with a clutch hit.

It's not often I suggest taking professional players and using them as examples for kids learning the game. Sometimes they are just too good of athletes to use as examples and other time they just don't try hard enough. But what Johnny Damon did should be replayed over and over again for Little Leaguers. His at-bat was a thing of beauty and his hustle and quick thinking were amazing.