I don’t watch much baseball anymore (okay, hardly/if any), but even I know this is embarrassing in the extreme:
LSU had scored a run and had the bases loaded but UC Irvine second baseman Casey Stevenson snuffed the rally by pulling the hidden ball trick on the Tigers’ D.J. LeMahieu at second base.
Three two-out walks loaded the bases for LSU. Leon Landry then hit a grounder off pitcher Scott Gorgen’s glove. The ball caromed to Stevenson who did not make a throw but apparently held the ball. When play resumed and LeMahieu took his lead off second, Stevenson tagged him and second base umpire David Rogers called LeMahieu out.
An LSU Assistant Coach was subsequently thrown out; the LSU head coach argued the call; fans booed. But come on, your guy fell for the hidden ball trick.
Below: different coach, same idea.
(photo credit: TipsterHog)
At risk of sounding like a baseball fan, which I’m not really, but the runner for LSU made it back to second base. UC Irvine sold it and acted like he was out, jumping around and all. The 2nd base ump wasn’t watching the play, then looked up, saw UC Irvine celebrating, and then called the runner out.
Yeah, I saw something to that effect in the nola.com comments, but decided to wait until a more reputable source came forward. That the UC guy “sold it” is still pretty impressive.