- [Will] So let's talk about stealing in sports
and the obvious one being stealing bases in baseball.
- Something that's smiled upon
as opposed to most types of stealing.
- Like most good things in baseball,
we're going to quickly jump back to the early 20th century.
I want to tell you about this guy, Herman Schaefer.
He was born in Chicago, but he had a German enough name
that everyone just called him Germany.
(Clara chuckling)
- [Clara] It's not that... - [Will] Real original.
- [Clara] Yeah, it doesn't sound that German.
- So Germany was in MLB early 1900s.
- Got you.
- As they were still working a lot of the bugs
out of the game.
There was a moment, I believe it was in 1907,
where he was on first base
and he had a teammate on third base.
They were going to attempt the double steal
where the first baseman would steal second
and try to get the catcher to throw the ball to second,
which would give time for the runner on third
to sprint home and steal home,
get a run.
- Nice.
The bait and steal.
- Bingo.
So Germany was gonna be the bait,
he took off but the catcher didn't throw the ball.
So the runner on third never advanced.
In a normal situation,
you'd be like, oh, great.
Okay, cool we have a guy on second and third.
- Yeah, good consolation prize.
- Right, yeah.
Everybody's safe, let's just keep cruising.
What Germany instead did
was he went and stole first base back.
- Oh, you can do that?
- Again. Early...
This was like 1907. - Okay, yeah.
We're beta version of
baseball. - Right.
He stole first, he runs up back on first
and they're just like, all right, let's try it again.
He, next pitch, takes off, steals second.
And this is where there's some reports of
I think an outfielder years later was like,
"and that time it worked
and the catcher threw the ball
and the runner on third was able to score."
And it's hard to kind of verify
but that got kind of famously written into a book
of the time a guy stole first base
in order to steal second for a second time.
- I'm surprised it's called stealing first base.
It feels like it should be gave up second.
He gave away second.
Yeah.
- Gave up second. I like that.
Then about four years later, he tried this again.
And this time around the opposing manager came out
and was like, you can't do that.
Like, come on, stay on second man.
- Yeah, play the game that we agreed to play.
- When the manager came out
and there was confusion and stuff,
that's when the runner on third took off for...
He got thrown out there. So...
- Not enough confusion.
I'm surprised it took him four years to do it again.
It seems like it worked,
everyone thought he was like fun and cool.
He got in a book for it.
- I wonder if it's like any good trick play,
you really have to just wait a beat
before you try to pull it off again.
- Yeah, that makes sense.
If I do something that gets written into a book,
I'm gonna do it like every day.
I'm not gonna wait four years to do it again.
- And so after that second attempt
of doing the same stupid maneuver,
baseball waited eight or nine years
before actually putting in a rule
to dissuade people from doing this.
- You know, some people call it a slow moving sport,
but again, I'd say nine years to address the issue
was longer than I would have assumed.
- [Will] And so that rule is rule five,
section nine, B dash 10.
"Any runner is out
"when after he has acquired legal possession of a base,
"he runs the bases in reverse order
"for the purpose of confusing the defense
"or making a travesty of the game.
(Clara laughing)
- Like if he embarrasses us he's out.
- Right, right.
- It feels very defensive.
It's like you just say don't run the bases backwards
for any reason,
instead of like for, if you're making fun of me.
- I am glad you jumped to that
because based on how this is written
in 2013, a player more or less
pulled off the modern version of stealing first base.
- Oh wow. Still possible.
Anything's possible.
- I will say it does take a kind of collected effort
of idiocy
more or less. - Sure.
- So what happened was in 2013,
Brewers and the Cubs were playing bottom of the eighth,
one run game,
Jean Segura, he singled and then he stole second.
- Great. - So far, super normal.
With first base open the Cubs decided to walk Ryan Braun.
So guys on first and second.
The Brewers then attempted a double steal
with Segura going to third
and Braun going to second simultaneously,
but the Cubs are ready for this
and instead of pitching,
the pitcher throws the ball straight to third.
So, Segura backtracks, makes it to second,
once Braun is already at second.
- [Clara] Oh oh.
We got a classic traffic jam.
- Here's where the length of a rule book
and how much an umpire can keep track of at once
and a bang, bang play, all kind of comes together.
They say, well, Braun, you're for sure out.
'Cause there's the rule where
if there's two runners on the same base,
the following runner is the one that's out.
They totally missed the fact
that Segura was also tagged out.
So despite that rule.
- [Clara] A lot going on.
- But Segura is like, oh, I'm out,
I'll head back to the dugout.
But the Brewers' dugout happened to be in the same direction
as first base.
And so he gets about halfway before the first base coach
is like, no, no, no, no, come on, come on, come on.
And he kind of picks up his pace and trots into first
and is just like chilling there.
- That's wonderful.
- At one point he like starts coming off the bag
and the first base coach was like, no, no, no stay, stay.
Like, wait this out.
And so within a few pitches
Segura tried to steal second again and was thrown out
and that was the end of the inning.
- I'm kind of pissed at him for stealing second
at that point.
It's like, just try to hold onto this
so you can be a legend,
like just don't risk it. - Right.
- You've gotten a gift here.
- At the same time,
if he could have stolen three bases in the same inning.
- Good point.
That'd earn you a badge.
That's good.
When you first started telling the second story,
I thought it was going to be like
someone was aware of the rule
and knew how to exploit it
rather than just like no one knew any of the rules.
- Well, and I like that thought
because the way to exploit it
is to just make sure you're not making a travesty
of the game.
- Yeah, no you're doing it because you love first base.
- You love first base
or you're a total idiot.
The best part to me that really shows baseball
has always been the same
is it took them about a week to come out
and be like, oh, here's how this should have been ruled.
While no travesty was being made,
there's other rules that should have made Segura out,
including like because he had kind of given himself up
and it looked like for a moment
he was returning to the dugout,
then the runner is considered out.
And here's the rule that actually makes it
very, very difficult to steal first base.
Rule 506 dash A, says "if a runner legally acquires title
"to a base,
which great word choice,
"and the pitcher assumes his pitching position,
"the runner may not return to a previously occupied base.
- Kind of a buzzkill.
- Kind of a buzzkill,
but once again,
in my mind leaves a little bit of wiggle room
for the ability to steal first.
- Yeah, I suppose it could be subjective.
Is he in pitching position or not?
- They have a chance with a lot of these rules
to just outright say never steal first.
- Yeah.
- Each time they add just a few too many words
that I believe in 2021, a baseball player,
if they steal second
and then before the pitcher is ready to pitch again,
take off to steal first
and never make a travesty of the game.
- Of course.
- I think they could legally steal first in that situation.
- I think the only caveat would be like,
we would then have to talk to them
and be like, why did you do it?
Were you trying to confuse anyone?
Because it's hard to come up with an answer
that doesn't involve I was trying to confuse someone,
unless again, it comes back to like, I'm not very smart.
And that's what happened.
- Do you think that empires would allow it
if you get a second and realize you left your wallet
at first?
- I mean, they would have to.
That's a security issue.
(soft music)
- [Will] So a special thanks to you
for watching this episode of "Weird Rules"
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