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 by Rams1PlateSince1976
5 years 7 months ago
 Total posts:   2071  
 Joined:  Oct 12 2016
United States of America   LA Coliseum
Pro Bowl

The name of my team was Stuff. Circa 1983 to 2001. Lawrence Kansas. Upper division double header league the last five years.

There was a five home-run limit per game.

Learned to play this defense the hard way in Tonganoxie league where I was lucky to field an eight man team. (I never ever lost a game by forfeit. Could field ten players but had to have at least eight.)

If shorthanded I would go without a first baseman and an outfielder. I was the pitcher so would pitch and play first base and send the first base man to the outfield.

 by Rams1PlateSince1976
5 years 7 months ago
 Total posts:   2071  
 Joined:  Oct 12 2016
United States of America   LA Coliseum
Pro Bowl

A Friday night early July 2001. The Friday before July 4th and I had several substitutes in due to guys out of town for the holiday.

1st Inning of game one of our upper division doubleheader. We were home team. I started as pitcher and quickly got shelled. I think we were down about eight runs with no outs when I moved to first base and moved Big John Stud Lafferty from 1st to Pitcher. We scored one run and We got out of the first inning down about 12 to 1.

On defense I moved to right field and sent Big John Stud back to 1st base and John Nelson from right to pitcher. Nelson got shelled too. We failed to score in our at bat. After the 2nd inning we were down 19 to 1.



I huddled everybody up and told them we were putting the Big Shift on. I had never used this defense in upper division Lawrence league as it was just an emergency defense in Tonganoxie League. But this was an emergency.

I quickly described the defense and Doug (DG) Brown retorted that he had played this defense in college. I said good and reminded him not to hit me in the back of the head on my way to first. (Doug was playing 3rd and I was moving back to pitcher.) John Lafferty was moved from 1st base into right field rover.

Thus the defense: Five outfielders (2 short rovers) and three deep outfielders. No first baseman. I resumed pitching. I instructed Tad at 2nd to cheat a bit towards 1st base.

The opposition had already reached their five home run limit.

My first pitch of the third inning was to a sharp opponent who saw that we didn't have a first baseman and poked a single to right field. My second pitch resulted in a double play as the batter hit a line drive to Lafferty playing short right field. The runner from 1st base was lazy going back to first and Big John Stud Lafferty threw a fast ball to ME who had hustled from the pitchers mound to first base for the force out.

The third batter hit a ground ball to Tad (our second baseman) who threw the runner out at 1st. (score it 4-1. 2nd base to pitcher).

We got back to the dugout and Doug (DG) Brown came up to me and said: "Jeff, I was wrong. We never played this defense."

We had to score 4 runs to stay in the game as there was a 15 run limit after three and we were home team. In the dugout I started yelling "Swing the Bat!" We scored four and after two inning were down 19 to 5.



We scored four runs so after three were down 19 to 5.

 by Rams1PlateSince1976
5 years 7 months ago
 Total posts:   2071  
 Joined:  Oct 12 2016
United States of America   LA Coliseum
Pro Bowl

The opposition's first batter up the fourth inning must have been in the john the previous inning as he had missed the Big Shift's entrance into the game. (Please know that this was a team of gorillas. Their smallest player was about as big as our biggest player.)

Anyway, he got to the plate, looked at our defense, stepped back from the plate and told the umpire, "they have too many guys on the field!" The umpire stood up and counted us. He said, "No. They're fine. They have 10." The batter protested, "They don't have a first baseman. They can't do that!" The umpire said there was no rule about that and we were good. The batter popped up. The next batter got a base hit through the big hole at first base. The third batter hit a fly ball to right center. My center fielder caught the ball and threw a bullet to first which I caught to double up the runner who was lazy going back to first as we didn't have a first baseman. The Very Rare 8-1 Double Play.

 by Rams1PlateSince1976
5 years 7 months ago
 Total posts:   2071  
 Joined:  Oct 12 2016
United States of America   LA Coliseum
Pro Bowl

We kept swinging the bat and we kept making double plays. All of the double plays ending in a 1. Some more very rare whatever position to pitcher. And we kept swing the bat. At the end of seven innings the score was 21 to 19. Stuff victory.

There was a five minute break between the games. We batted first the second game and scored 4 or five runs. Taking the field Doug asked what defense??? I, of course, said The Big Shift. We run-ruled them 15-0 after three. Never saw a team of gorillas walk off the field with their heads so low a that night. I still see most of the guys now and again. Scotty Show still tells me that no one else could have pulled that off.

Better to be an over-achiever than an under-achiever.

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4 posts Mar 28 2024