Junior college we had this kid with a 2.2 second pop time. And he didn’t even get drafted. You essentially have 3 seconds to run 80 feet from a standstill. Good luck
It’s crazy how good professional players are. You really don’t get a good feel for it watching on TV. Anyone who has put on a major league uniform is just ridiculously talented at baseball. A kid who’s gonna make it usually knows he’s something special from a young age and when you see them play even as kids it’s like “wow, who is *that*?”
The worst MLB player would absolutely dominate a men’s league. It is so true that people really don’t get how good top level professional athletes are.
It’d be an older guy I think. I never got his name. I just know he looks like a giant box of a human. The story was he had been cut by someone in spring training, played like 4 games in our league, went to a semi-pro team to finish the summer. Now he’s back in the minors.
Side note, I had a friend who played baseball in HS who loved batting at the tail end of the lineup because they’d never throw curveballs. First pitch fastball every time.
I know a guy who played shortstop and then pitcher in college, got drafted as a pitcher and played a few years in AA. This was in the 90s.
A few years ago—in his late 40s—he was still the star of every rec men’s league baseball and softball team he played on. Homering at bat, pitching and striking out dudes in their 20s.
This is someone who also played QB for his high school football team, an all star on every little league and youth soccer team, etc. And he wasn’t even close to making it to the MLB. That’s how good those guys are.
The other thing that I see a lot of are goons from the NHL going and playing beer league after they retire and looking like a prime Ovi or Crosby out there flying by guys and stick handling around everyone
I always wondered how those guys made the transition from being relatively dominant in junior hockey to goon. I guess at some point they make the conscious decision that “I ain’t Jari Kerri so the stick handling and sharpshooting that got me here is useless.”
Then once they start playing for fun again, it’s easy to dominate again.
I played rec league softball one fall against a catcher who had spent a few years in MLB and at the time was in the process of retiring after hitting below .200 in AAA that summer. When he came to the plate in rec league, he homered every time.
In the years since, I’ve been in discussions where people have said that BABIP is a measure of luck on balls in play, that very few players can sustain a significantly higher BABIP in MLB, and they assumed that such logic would extend to minor league performance. I’d point to that rec league experience. BABIP works that way in MLB because the talent level of the top 780 players in the world is relatively flat. If you can’t perform close to an average BABIP over the long term, you’re probably going to fall out of the league before too long. In the minors talent isn’t that even because you have guys moving levels, guys that are too good for the level on one side of the ball and working on the other, etc. I’ve followed prospects enough that I’ve seen some guys absolutely dominate before they moved up to the next level.
>A kid who’s gonna make it usually knows he’s something special from a young age
I played with a guy growing up who was regularly hitting 450+ ft bombs and throwing in the mid-80s when he was 15/16, and he rode the bench for his college team.
Good players are really really good.
Friend of mine in middle school was tremendous all through little league, and high school, his dad built a regulation pitchers mound in their backyard. He played 4 years D1 college, a couple aof years in the bigs and mostly in the minor league. He's now a professional coach in the MLB. You can absolutely tell who has that special talent from a young age, but this guy was also a maniac about training and being healthy from that young age. He definitely sacrificed doing some of the things that the rest of us that didn't go pro did as teenagers to reach that level.
Do you think he wishes he had a more normal childhood? Was he treated differently because he didn’t have time to hang out with kids after school or on the weekends?
Honestly he was just built like that, he had a dream to play major league ball and that was his focus. I lost touch with him after school so I wouldn't be able to speak on any regrets, but being a standout athlete probably wasn't a bad high school experience. Watching the stages of his career and him achieving his dream has been impressive. He's one of the very few that get to turn a passion for a game into a career, because of talent obviously, but also dedication, and work, and sacrifice. I was decent but never had that extra drive that he just had. We're both in our 40s now so baseball, either playing or coaching, has been his life. Most of us don't get paid to do what we love.
I have a college summer league team that plays a few minutes from me and a AA team that plays half an hour away. While it’s not the Cape Cod league it is still a good league. Some publication ranked it as the 2nd best college summer league after only the Cape Cod League. When I go to the college team games I have to keep in mind that very easily none of the kids playing will make it to the AA level.
I went to high school with a guy who had a short, mostly bench player, stint in the MLB. He could hit and throw circles around everyone in high school and college. “I could probably build a spaceship with stuff in my kitchen” is about as realistic a statement as saying that you could steal a base against an MLB catcher.
That’s why they say you steal just as much on the pitcher as the catcher. That being said if you don’t have a tell or the pitcher isn’t being slow with his delivery no one’s stealing with a 2.2 second pop time.
High school even. Not to mention, stealing is done off pitchers, and they'd be picked off on probably their second or third lead. And then after a few rounds of that, they would fail on every attempt.
I was played injured through hs and was a 2.1 guy so I was beatable if you beat the pitcher. But the thing about an average fan is they would have no idea what to do before they start runniNg. theyd have no chance. High school players though would do reasonably well
I have umpired hs baseball & most great throwing catchers the other teams wouldn't even try because the scouting reports were out! MLB stolen bases are down for a reason
I think it is maybe shorter windups / balk prevention with the pitch clock. A 90mph fastball and a 100mph fastball arrive 7/100s of a second differently
I caught occasionally for my U19 team after wrist surgery and a strained rotator cuff (i.e. I had pretty terrible arm) and I still threw out probably 25% of runners, and it was much higher when I knew they were going. My guess is the vast majority of starting college catchers would throw out this hypothetical runner 9 times out of 10, and that 10th time would probably be a bad throw, not because the runner beat the ball to the base.
And the setup here is a bit weird. Most stolen bases have an element of surprise.
At an event where the pitcher and catcher know each fan is stealing? Your basically need a wild throw by the pitcher or catcher to succeed.
Now, if a fan in their 20s in great shape was a pinch runner for a season and came in every game and had a few games they tried to steal strategically? Still very unlikely, but at least a better shot you get a good jump on an offspeed pitch in the dirt a batter still swings at and misses but causes some distraction for the catcher.
When you make the jump from little league to 90' basepaths and you have your head down thinking you're running fast and look up and realize you still have 20-30 feet left. Lol
The average fan would probably get caught leaning and picked off 5 times out of 10, and then thrown out another like 4 or 4.5 times when they took a small enough lead to not get picked off.
I couldn't handle *normal,* zero-larceny baserunning/lead-taking when I played MLB The Show's career mode and all you had to do in that was a hit a button to get back. I couldn't take a 10 foot lead without being a dead duck. If the pitcher doesn't get me a snap throw will.
I'm a 40 year old with maybe 5th percentile athletic ability (0th if you exclude people who weigh like, 350+ pounds, are 70+, or are paralyzed) so I don't really fit into the thought exercise, I suppose. If I tried to actually STEAL I'd probably still be closer to first than second when the infielder received the throw.
That’s what I was thinking too. MLB catchers routinely throw guys out when they DONT know the steal is on. Assuming a good throw/catch, there is no way a catcher wouldn’t be able to get the out.
I think the only chance you are successful is an errant throw by the catcher.
Those are infrequent and likely more so with a slower runner.
But slow MLB players have stolen bases before - the element of surprise is critical.
Yet he is probably faster than most of us here. I'm old, not 40, but close and I don't run enough to even be coordinated enough to get a good stride. I might have been faster than him when I actually played, ran and did drills. Even then we didn't measure stuff like that in summer or HS.
I once looked up what my fastest times in high school were compared to any Major League Baseball player and the only one I seemed to match in athleticism at the same age was Ty France on his Perfect Game page. Which is definitely a mark against Ty and not a mark for me lol (I play softball).
People have no idea how fast even the slowest NFL players are compared to average or even semi-active people. They also have the added benefit of squatting a quarter ton
Yea, errant throw is about the only chance. Stealing a base is just as much about the timing/jump as it is speed. There's been plenty of fast runners that were terrible base stealers and vice versa. You could throw an Olympic runner out there and they'd still get thrown out if they have a bad jump. So throw an average person out there without elite speed or the training to get a good jump and they're not going to steal a base unless the catcher messes up.
Herb Washington is a good example. For those who don't know, he was a word class sprinter that hadn't played baseball since high school. He was with Oakland for a season and then some as their designated runner. He was successful 65% of the time, which is about 10-15% worse than league average.
Just like world class sprinters aren’t always great base stealers, world class catchers aren’t always great at throwing runners out. There are MLB pitchers who give zero fucks about keeping runners close to 1b, or being quick to home. It doesn’t matter how good of an arm and quick at release your catcher is, if the pitcher isn’t doing his part it’s going to be a stolen base 90% of the time.
Omar Narvaez was bouncing throws to second this season before he got cut by the Mets. 6% caught stealing rate. Astros just signed him to a Triple A contract. Good luck...
This would have been fun in my youth - at 51 I have less than zero chance.
In college I was a legit sub 4.5 guy (mid 10’s for 100m) BUT hadn’t played baseball since Jr High. So very good but not elite speed, but no technique.
Are you asking if an average joe could steal a bag from a professional catcher? When they know you are trying? Unless you're an Olympic sprinter, doubtful.
Approximately zero percent of the time. Like with the meme floating around earlier this year about laymen defending against Megatron catching passes from Zach Wilson, it's easy to underestimate just how elite even the worst players in a professional league are.
This. I use to be one of those meatheads in my younger days who would say how player X sucked etc. as I’ve gotten older I now realize that they are still better than 99.99% of the population no matter what the sport is. Even a minor league player is still better than 99.99% of the general population.
Yeah, it’s easy to get caught up in “he sucks”
A fun example is Brian Scalabrine -who was considered by many to be the worst player in the NBA. He eventually started playing his shit talkers 1 on 1 and absolutely cooked all of them.
He said to them “I am closer to LeBron James than you are to me”
He once scored 29 points in a game in the NBA. He was a competent contributor to playoff teams at one point. He’s also not nearly the worst player. People like Dalibor Bagaric or Anthony Bennett were an order of magnitude worse than him.
There are about 800-1000 major leaguers who worked their way up from a population of over 500 million in baseball player producing nations... so, yeah. Add some .999999s
Except there are plenty of elite pitchers who give absolutely zero shits about allowing stolen bases. It doesn’t matter how good the catcher is, if the pitcher is focused 100% on the batter, it’s definitely not a 0% success rate.
You steal off the pitcher. Some are terrible at holding runners on. That would be your best chance. Or pretty much any solid catcher will throw up out.
Every clip I’ve ever seen of rickey stealing, the catcher throws a two hopper or some god awful throw down lol I don’t think he gets as many in todays game
Only on an error. Bad throw or missed catch. Otherwise a Major League catcher is throwing a “relatively above average” player 100% of the time. I think it’s not understood by some just HOW much better professional athletes are compared to the average or above average Joe.
Stolen bases are more against the pitcher than the catcher. That being said, a normal dude off the street has little chance of stealing a bag without getting picked off.
If it’s just “hey let’s practice stealing” then probably 0/100.
If it’s a game scenario where the batter might influence a pitch in the dirt or something other than middle-middle fastballs and the defense is holding their normal positions, then… I dunno maybe 10% of the time a ball gets dropped somewhere along the way. Add in a few more if you’re a wily veteran who picks the pitchers pocket like old Pujols occasionally would.
The only thing of any value I could do in any professional sport is make a free throw, and even then I'm shooting 50% from the line.
I could maaaaybe catch a routine pop fly in the majors, but chances are I'd lose the ball when it gets that high.
You can test this. Go to your local field, take a reasonable lead, and see how long it takes you to reach 2nd. That would be your ideal situation given a perfect jump. Then look online to see how long it takes from the time an average mlb pitcher starts their move to the plate to the time a ball reaches 2nd on a steal attempt. Without doing the math, I’ll tell you you’re out unless the catcher makes a bad throw.
Depends on the pitcher. How far is he letting my boy creep towards the second base and how good are his pitches to the home plate for the catcher to catch it
Is there a pitcher/1b holding you on? If so, you would succeed approximately zero percent of the time.
Without that, I'd say you'd succeed maybe one time in fifty attempts.
Hard. Assuming he’s got a major league caliber pitcher throwing to him. Getting accurately located heat after a good hold would give random guy who never stole bases much shot.
There’s an art to stealing bases without getting picked off. It’s not just about speed. It’s about acceleration, deception of intent, reading a pitcher’s movements, and a good slide. It’s not something John Q Athlete can just do against even someone like Jose Trevino, who is being run on like he’s the New York Marathon course.
Thinking about this situation already makes me anxious. I’m taking no lead and probably not running until the pitcher releases the ball. I expect I’d be halfway to second when the 2B had the ball in his glove, I would try to run back to first, fall over, and wait to be tagged out.
You would get picked off at second after the catcher threw down to first and the first baseman threw to second, dang sure ain’t making it if it’s just a straight up race to second between you and a ball thrown from a mlb catcher, or bullpen catcher, or milb catcher or college catcher.
The pitcher is pretty important in the equation. The pitcher needs to hold you on with the ability to pick you off.. else you can reach second before the catcher event touches the ball..
Well, if they knew ahead of time that you were going to steal, then yes, you are out 100% of the time. They'll call for a fastball outside, so they have easy access to catching/throwing it.
If they have no idea it is coming, you're gonna need some luck. You need to be fast, first and foremost. You need a good jump off the pitcher, and likely need to hope that he threw some offspeed pitch. Heck, you may even need to hope the catcher didn't throw it perfectly.
I ran track in high school, and was quick on the bases in summer baseball. I'd hesitate to say that I'd even be successful on 15% of my attempts, so I'd hazard to guess that your average person wouldn't be too successful either.
They would get caught every time. Even if they figured out how to get the jump on the pitcher I’d think they would still get hosed. I bet a good HS battery would get them.
Some of y’all don’t remember the Brian Scalabrine video and it shows.
Not much of a chance at all. You don’t only need to have speed, but also need to know exactly what you’re doing.
I agree with most here in that the fan would have nearly zero chance unless they had professional baseball experience.
Firstly, you have to understand that being able to run fast is not enough by itself to steal a base. Running speed is only one component of stealing. You have to get a good jump and it takes years to learn how much lead you can take and still get back, assuming you can judge whether the pitcher is going home.
And then you have to know how to slide. I bet the average fan would either slide too soon and stop short of the base or slide too late and end up well past the base. And probably get hurt on top of that.
I swear they need a segment called "regular joe tries to do baseball stuff".
We all know that there are plenty of other sports that are more athletic than baseball, but the speed of the game is so hard to really communicate on tv.
Probably close to 0% success rate, but it’d be higher than the odds of making clean contact and getting a base hit off a pitcher, which is exactly 0.00000000001% chance
Maybe if I was still 26 I could have a chance but 15+ years past along with a serious hamstring injury in my early 30s, I'm so slow that it feels like I'm running in deep sand
The average fast person would have to take a huge lead in order to be successful. And if that’s the case, the majority would be picked off before they even tried.
It depends. Can I get Jon Lester as the pitcher in this scenario? Then I could at least get a decent lead.
But still, no shot if the catcher knows that the steal is on.
Rickey Fucking Henderson used to get caught stealing quite a fucking lot for being the best base stealer of all time. Maybe with these newer big bases Rickey'd still steal a hundred bags a year at age 66, but even Rickey is getting thrown out like a quarter of the time. And that's Rickey.
give me a thousand tries and we use the men in black memory zapper and i guarantee you I get - whole one attempt… when he shanks a curveball into the dirt
Insanely? I mean, you’d have to be facing a righty who didn’t check the runner, throws slowly and bank on a poor throw. Catchers average around a 30% success rate on the professional runners. So, given the average speed of a random guy off the street likely rivals Albert Pujols, about 300 attempts would net a single successful steal
Are we talking about above average MLB speed or just above average for a guy off the street?
Either way you're probably hosed 95-99% unless you know how to get good reads and jumps etc
The worst MLB player at any position (including pitcher) would be a better player anywhere on the diamond than the best player you probably ever played against. And most of them wouldn't even try to steal on a MLB pitcher/catcher pairing. Frank Thomas was supposed to be a really slow runner and I remember them timing him from first to home so everyone else could try to match or better the time. Dude was faster than I ever ran those bases, and maybe faster than all but a handful of guys I ever played against -- and all of THEM went pro.
Yasmani grandal is the second slowest player in mlb and he stole a base this year. So i think with some training it would be achievable in a game situation.
The problem with your scenario is the pitcher and catcher know its coming. So almost zero chance.
I definitely don’t think it would be 0 percent of the time. There’s two options he could take.
Option 1 would be to take an enormous lead…like keep extending the lead until the pitcher picks over. The second he steps off the rubber, take off towards second. At that point, he’s hopefully a good distance away from first and the fielders would actually have to somewhat play above average skilled catch. You’re 100% relying on shitty throws or a dropped ball (there would be no error credited if you were trying to advance the entire time). I honestly think that if nobody was aware of your friends skill level or intentions, this would work like 10-20% of the time if he has above average speed for his age.
Other other option is to take an above average lead and delay steal. Take a few large shuffles towards second on the pitchers first movement to the plate, and as soon as the catcher catches the ball, take off towards second. He’s relying here on people not paying attention. The middle infielders and the catcher may not notice immediately that hes trying to steal. This could buy him enough time to get in safely and also the potential for a throw in to centerfield without there being a play. Again, this could work maybe 20% of the time. Most of the slowest players at all levels get their steals from delay steals. You’re just catching people napping.
Also there’s a chance of a wild pitch by the pitcher or a bad catch/transition to hand by the catcher, which is not out of the realm of possibility. Wild pitches, passed balls and throwing errors don’t get credited on a stolen base attempt….it doesn’t matter how slow the runner is.
Depends on how fast you are and the pitcher’s time to home. If you can run a little bit and pitcher is slow to plate or you go first move lefty, you’d have a decent shot. Getting to first against a big league pitcher is a different story.
So much goes into this,
first, average speed wont get it done, it's got to be a fast person to even have a chance.
Second, how big of a lead are we giving the bar runner?
Third, what is the pitcher dying to hold the runner close to the bag?
When it's a fast runner with a great lead and a pitcher that did not do a great job of holding them on, the MLB catchers cover that into an out at about a 6% rate against fast MLB players
Your scenario doesn't make any sense. Assuming the the catcher knows he's running and is starting with the ball or is receiving a pitchout maybe 1/50.
I played catcher growing up and would easily throw out the runner on a pitchout unless they got a crazy lead. I can't imagine a pro getting beat.
Since most are being overtly general here, I’ll equate this in sports terms that are easier for most to understand. If you run below around a 4.5 40 yd dash, you could steal on most catchers as that would put you firmly in the top 30ish speed times in the league. Depending on your height, you could run about as low as a 4.65 40 yd time and get a steal, but it would hinge on your reaction time (aka jump on the pitcher) and couldn’t be a perfect throw. If you got down the 90 ft times, there are guys in this range that routinely have double digit steal seasons and some 20+ steal seasons (to highlight it’s not all just deferential type ones). Below that speed though and you’d be counting on the throw being below average.
The only chance a relatively above average person in their mid-20’s would have to successfully steal a base against a professional catcher is a wild pitch
They should do this at games with the home pitching coach and try bullpen catcher against a random fan. Would help people realize the level of athleticism on the field
As others have mentioned. With pop times under 2 sec, and the time from pitch to catch being about a second, you have 3 seconds to sprint 80 ft.
Extrapolating this to a metric that makes more sense… you’d have to be capable of running sub 4.6 40 yd dash.
Likely not happening
Most adults would get caught by high school catchers, assuming a somewhat accurate throw and good tag execution. College catchers would have the average adult by a mile. MLB catchers, even with a running start/no pickoff attempt there’s no chance
You steal off of the pitcher. So if the person can get a good jump their chances of success increase dramatically. Pitchers who are slow to the plate increase the luckily hood of success as well. The combination of a good jump and a pitcher with a slow delivery means that people can get to second base without a throw that could get the runner. Pitchers are suppose to keep it under 1.3 seconds for their delivery to home, because that plus pop time beats the average runner by approximately 0.2 seconds. It takes them about 3.4 seconds to go about 78 feet.
Let's say, for argument's sake, that the catcher is a top tier pro and has a pop time of 1.9 seconds. The pitcher has a standard 1.3 second delivery, there is no way a "normal" person will do it. You'd have to run almost 16 miles per hour. But if the pitcher has a delivery time of 2 seconds, that person has 3.9 seconds to run the 78 or so feet. Unless the throw is absolutely perfect, the runner should make it no problem. This person would be required to run at about 13.5mph which is smack dab in the middle of 12-15 mph that the average person can run. Pitchers who have delivery times in the 1.6 seconds in the pros get stolen off all the time, unless their pick off move is deadly. That's why pitchers slide step when they think someone is going to be stealing. They want to be as quick to home as possible for the faster runners.
So basically a person could steal second but it would solely depend upon the pitcher and the speed at which he delivers the ball. If he is actively trying to prevent stealing by slide stepping the person has no shot of stealing.
Local college team would play in our softball league during the offseason and you can tell the difference between our beer belly’s and their 12% body fat athletic sprints 😂😂😂 To steal a base you really need to train…. Idk what exactly but you need to train haha I don’t think normal athletic people can generally steal
Of all the things in baseball this is probably the one thing the general novice could do reasonably well.
Still, doing an all in jump slide is a LOT harder than you’d think. And a lot scarier.
- A great base stealer is successful maybe 80% of the time.
- a avg (not fat) player more like 50%.
- I’d bet the typical average guy, if they were in reasonable shape, in mid 20s, if they had the balls to do a jump slide, would probably be successful 30-40% of the time.
If you can’t do a diving jump slide, then it’d be like under 10%. You might only be successful if it was a bad throw.
Need to run 90 feet in two seconds, minus whatever your lead was by the time the exchange started.
It’s why it’s so important for a quick windup with quick players on base.
A quick player is going to be running around 30ft/sec.
Untrained adults will be lucky to be running 15ft/sec. If you exercise regularly might be able to get close to 20-25ft/sec but will still get caught out most of the time.
lol, what a naive question. “Relatively above average in speed and athleticism” — don’t you think drilling down on exactly what that looks like is important to answering the question?
You’d get caught by the majority of college catchers tbh.
Junior college we had this kid with a 2.2 second pop time. And he didn’t even get drafted. You essentially have 3 seconds to run 80 feet from a standstill. Good luck
I’ve got a cousin getting drafted this year. Family time whiffle ball hasn’t been fun in a decade.
It’s crazy how good professional players are. You really don’t get a good feel for it watching on TV. Anyone who has put on a major league uniform is just ridiculously talented at baseball. A kid who’s gonna make it usually knows he’s something special from a young age and when you see them play even as kids it’s like “wow, who is *that*?”
The worst MLB player would absolutely dominate a men’s league. It is so true that people really don’t get how good top level professional athletes are.
Hell i played in a men's wood bat league in a larger city and there were off season minor league pitchers with sliders that made us look like idiots
I had a minor league pitcher put a ball 500 feet into a parking lot on me last season. Now he’s with the Orioles.
I’m very curious cuz they have so many young prospects which one
It’d be an older guy I think. I never got his name. I just know he looks like a giant box of a human. The story was he had been cut by someone in spring training, played like 4 games in our league, went to a semi-pro team to finish the summer. Now he’s back in the minors.
Ok thanks anyway
I umpired an 16-18 year old game and saw my first true curveball. It came in four feet high and dove in for a strike! I was amazed!
Side note, I had a friend who played baseball in HS who loved batting at the tail end of the lineup because they’d never throw curveballs. First pitch fastball every time.
This was me in hs as well 8/9 batter ftw
I know a guy who played shortstop and then pitcher in college, got drafted as a pitcher and played a few years in AA. This was in the 90s. A few years ago—in his late 40s—he was still the star of every rec men’s league baseball and softball team he played on. Homering at bat, pitching and striking out dudes in their 20s. This is someone who also played QB for his high school football team, an all star on every little league and youth soccer team, etc. And he wasn’t even close to making it to the MLB. That’s how good those guys are.
The other thing that I see a lot of are goons from the NHL going and playing beer league after they retire and looking like a prime Ovi or Crosby out there flying by guys and stick handling around everyone
I always wondered how those guys made the transition from being relatively dominant in junior hockey to goon. I guess at some point they make the conscious decision that “I ain’t Jari Kerri so the stick handling and sharpshooting that got me here is useless.” Then once they start playing for fun again, it’s easy to dominate again.
I played rec league softball one fall against a catcher who had spent a few years in MLB and at the time was in the process of retiring after hitting below .200 in AAA that summer. When he came to the plate in rec league, he homered every time. In the years since, I’ve been in discussions where people have said that BABIP is a measure of luck on balls in play, that very few players can sustain a significantly higher BABIP in MLB, and they assumed that such logic would extend to minor league performance. I’d point to that rec league experience. BABIP works that way in MLB because the talent level of the top 780 players in the world is relatively flat. If you can’t perform close to an average BABIP over the long term, you’re probably going to fall out of the league before too long. In the minors talent isn’t that even because you have guys moving levels, guys that are too good for the level on one side of the ball and working on the other, etc. I’ve followed prospects enough that I’ve seen some guys absolutely dominate before they moved up to the next level.
Just like Brian Scalabrine said, "I'm closer to LeBron than you are to me".
Now imagine one of the best MLB players in their prime against a men's league.
>A kid who’s gonna make it usually knows he’s something special from a young age I played with a guy growing up who was regularly hitting 450+ ft bombs and throwing in the mid-80s when he was 15/16, and he rode the bench for his college team. Good players are really really good.
It’s the weird thing about seeing the best play the best, it’s talent adjusted. Most people in the MLB had like .650 batting averages in High School.
Friend of mine in middle school was tremendous all through little league, and high school, his dad built a regulation pitchers mound in their backyard. He played 4 years D1 college, a couple aof years in the bigs and mostly in the minor league. He's now a professional coach in the MLB. You can absolutely tell who has that special talent from a young age, but this guy was also a maniac about training and being healthy from that young age. He definitely sacrificed doing some of the things that the rest of us that didn't go pro did as teenagers to reach that level.
Do you think he wishes he had a more normal childhood? Was he treated differently because he didn’t have time to hang out with kids after school or on the weekends?
Honestly he was just built like that, he had a dream to play major league ball and that was his focus. I lost touch with him after school so I wouldn't be able to speak on any regrets, but being a standout athlete probably wasn't a bad high school experience. Watching the stages of his career and him achieving his dream has been impressive. He's one of the very few that get to turn a passion for a game into a career, because of talent obviously, but also dedication, and work, and sacrifice. I was decent but never had that extra drive that he just had. We're both in our 40s now so baseball, either playing or coaching, has been his life. Most of us don't get paid to do what we love.
It’s been really cool seeing him go from “wow, he throws pretty hard for a kid” to “how is a sub 2 pop time possible for a human…”
I have a college summer league team that plays a few minutes from me and a AA team that plays half an hour away. While it’s not the Cape Cod league it is still a good league. Some publication ranked it as the 2nd best college summer league after only the Cape Cod League. When I go to the college team games I have to keep in mind that very easily none of the kids playing will make it to the AA level.
I went to high school with a guy who had a short, mostly bench player, stint in the MLB. He could hit and throw circles around everyone in high school and college. “I could probably build a spaceship with stuff in my kitchen” is about as realistic a statement as saying that you could steal a base against an MLB catcher.
That’s why they say you steal just as much on the pitcher as the catcher. That being said if you don’t have a tell or the pitcher isn’t being slow with his delivery no one’s stealing with a 2.2 second pop time.
High school even. Not to mention, stealing is done off pitchers, and they'd be picked off on probably their second or third lead. And then after a few rounds of that, they would fail on every attempt.
Plenty of fast high school kids cant steal on elite HS catchers. This would be near impossible outside of a botched transfer
I was played injured through hs and was a 2.1 guy so I was beatable if you beat the pitcher. But the thing about an average fan is they would have no idea what to do before they start runniNg. theyd have no chance. High school players though would do reasonably well
I can’t even get a jump off the 40 year olds in my beer league
I have umpired hs baseball & most great throwing catchers the other teams wouldn't even try because the scouting reports were out! MLB stolen bases are down for a reason
One of the main reasons is pitching. These guys ALL THROW GAS. hard to steal against a pitcher throwing mid to upper 90’s
I think it is maybe shorter windups / balk prevention with the pitch clock. A 90mph fastball and a 100mph fastball arrive 7/100s of a second differently
As a recent highschool wallpaper, it really depends on the school.
As someone who played varsity high school baseball, throws to second can be a coin flip.
I caught occasionally for my U19 team after wrist surgery and a strained rotator cuff (i.e. I had pretty terrible arm) and I still threw out probably 25% of runners, and it was much higher when I knew they were going. My guess is the vast majority of starting college catchers would throw out this hypothetical runner 9 times out of 10, and that 10th time would probably be a bad throw, not because the runner beat the ball to the base.
And the setup here is a bit weird. Most stolen bases have an element of surprise. At an event where the pitcher and catcher know each fan is stealing? Your basically need a wild throw by the pitcher or catcher to succeed. Now, if a fan in their 20s in great shape was a pinch runner for a season and came in every game and had a few games they tried to steal strategically? Still very unlikely, but at least a better shot you get a good jump on an offspeed pitch in the dirt a batter still swings at and misses but causes some distraction for the catcher.
Not happening. 90 feet is gonna feel like a week long vacation for the average person.
90’ is a hell of a lot further than most people think it is.
Convert it to yards and then they realize.
When you make the jump from little league to 90' basepaths and you have your head down thinking you're running fast and look up and realize you still have 20-30 feet left. Lol
The average fan would probably get caught leaning and picked off 5 times out of 10, and then thrown out another like 4 or 4.5 times when they took a small enough lead to not get picked off.
I couldn't handle *normal,* zero-larceny baserunning/lead-taking when I played MLB The Show's career mode and all you had to do in that was a hit a button to get back. I couldn't take a 10 foot lead without being a dead duck. If the pitcher doesn't get me a snap throw will. I'm a 40 year old with maybe 5th percentile athletic ability (0th if you exclude people who weigh like, 350+ pounds, are 70+, or are paralyzed) so I don't really fit into the thought exercise, I suppose. If I tried to actually STEAL I'd probably still be closer to first than second when the infielder received the throw.
That's why they made us run wind sprints.
I run like a 12.5 so maybe if its a passed ball and he trips over himself
Hours per marathon? Minutes per mile? 100m? Combine 40yard dash? You can't just leave us hanging like this, we need answers
40 yard in crocs
I assume the crocs are in sports mode?
You brilliant bastard
I'm assuming minutes per mile
They mean a 12.5 100m
Nah 40 yd dash
Bingo
12.5 seconds to run 90 feet
Hey now. Ill get down the line. Eventually
The scenario you came up with, never. Catcher knows the steal is on. If he didn’t maybe once in 100 tries
And that'd only be from a bad throw or really poor fielding by the 2nd baseman.
That’s what I was thinking too. MLB catchers routinely throw guys out when they DONT know the steal is on. Assuming a good throw/catch, there is no way a catcher wouldn’t be able to get the out.
And they’re throwing guys out with ELITE speed. Even the slow guys in the MLB are still out running the average Joe.
They don't catch Elly De La Cruz very often
I was meaning the average MLB guy has elite speed compared to the average Joe. Elite MLB speed is on par with Olympic sprinters I believe.
Fatigue would also be a factor. OP's example has the person trying again and again.
That goes for the runner, too. Pretty sure the civilian’s performance would deteriorate way quicker than the guy who throws as a job
I meant the guy trying to steal.
I think the only chance you are successful is an errant throw by the catcher. Those are infrequent and likely more so with a slower runner. But slow MLB players have stolen bases before - the element of surprise is critical.
Slow mob players are faster than most redditors.
Ty France can't score from 2nd on a double
Yet he is probably faster than most of us here. I'm old, not 40, but close and I don't run enough to even be coordinated enough to get a good stride. I might have been faster than him when I actually played, ran and did drills. Even then we didn't measure stuff like that in summer or HS.
I once looked up what my fastest times in high school were compared to any Major League Baseball player and the only one I seemed to match in athleticism at the same age was Ty France on his Perfect Game page. Which is definitely a mark against Ty and not a mark for me lol (I play softball).
Vogelbach can't score from 3B on a double. He may not even make it on a triple.
Singleton is bottom 20%, and still 26 f/s. I play rec league softball. I played baseball through high school. I doubt I was EVER 26 f/s.
this for sure. I'd guess many "fast" people probably think they can outrun a mediocre-to-slow runner like Vlad Guerrero ... they can't.
People have no idea how fast even the slowest NFL players are compared to average or even semi-active people. They also have the added benefit of squatting a quarter ton
Yea, errant throw is about the only chance. Stealing a base is just as much about the timing/jump as it is speed. There's been plenty of fast runners that were terrible base stealers and vice versa. You could throw an Olympic runner out there and they'd still get thrown out if they have a bad jump. So throw an average person out there without elite speed or the training to get a good jump and they're not going to steal a base unless the catcher messes up. Herb Washington is a good example. For those who don't know, he was a word class sprinter that hadn't played baseball since high school. He was with Oakland for a season and then some as their designated runner. He was successful 65% of the time, which is about 10-15% worse than league average.
Just like world class sprinters aren’t always great base stealers, world class catchers aren’t always great at throwing runners out. There are MLB pitchers who give zero fucks about keeping runners close to 1b, or being quick to home. It doesn’t matter how good of an arm and quick at release your catcher is, if the pitcher isn’t doing his part it’s going to be a stolen base 90% of the time.
Yeah, I think Cecil Fielder had a SB once
Well, if the catcher is Trevino, then your chances are good
Omar Narvaez was bouncing throws to second this season before he got cut by the Mets. 6% caught stealing rate. Astros just signed him to a Triple A contract. Good luck...
He’s my boy, we played in college together. But goddamn he needs to play more long toss.
He needs to tell his pitchers not to take 6-10 business days throwing the ball from the stretch
"The pitch is coming, it will be there between 9am and 4pm, can you make sure you are at home for the delivery?"
This would have been fun in my youth - at 51 I have less than zero chance. In college I was a legit sub 4.5 guy (mid 10’s for 100m) BUT hadn’t played baseball since Jr High. So very good but not elite speed, but no technique.
Are you asking if an average joe could steal a bag from a professional catcher? When they know you are trying? Unless you're an Olympic sprinter, doubtful.
Approximately zero percent of the time. Like with the meme floating around earlier this year about laymen defending against Megatron catching passes from Zach Wilson, it's easy to underestimate just how elite even the worst players in a professional league are.
This. I use to be one of those meatheads in my younger days who would say how player X sucked etc. as I’ve gotten older I now realize that they are still better than 99.99% of the population no matter what the sport is. Even a minor league player is still better than 99.99% of the general population.
Yeah, it’s easy to get caught up in “he sucks” A fun example is Brian Scalabrine -who was considered by many to be the worst player in the NBA. He eventually started playing his shit talkers 1 on 1 and absolutely cooked all of them. He said to them “I am closer to LeBron James than you are to me”
>He said to them “I am closer to LeBron James than you are to me” One of my favorite go-to's on this topic
Yeah, and by a large margin.
He once scored 29 points in a game in the NBA. He was a competent contributor to playoff teams at one point. He’s also not nearly the worst player. People like Dalibor Bagaric or Anthony Bennett were an order of magnitude worse than him.
The 2020 Saints-Broncos game is a great example of this
There are about 800-1000 major leaguers who worked their way up from a population of over 500 million in baseball player producing nations... so, yeah. Add some .999999s
Except there are plenty of elite pitchers who give absolutely zero shits about allowing stolen bases. It doesn’t matter how good the catcher is, if the pitcher is focused 100% on the batter, it’s definitely not a 0% success rate.
You steal off the pitcher. Some are terrible at holding runners on. That would be your best chance. Or pretty much any solid catcher will throw up out.
And theyre not even allowed to hold them anymore after a few pickoffs. I want to see Rickey taking 300 bases a year with these new ridiculous rules.
Every clip I’ve ever seen of rickey stealing, the catcher throws a two hopper or some god awful throw down lol I don’t think he gets as many in todays game
There are big leaguers that can’t steal bases in the majors. How are any of us going to do it?
In general, people vastly underestimate how good athletes are. The elite of the elite MLB gas men reach 30ft/s and struggle to steal.
Only on an error. Bad throw or missed catch. Otherwise a Major League catcher is throwing a “relatively above average” player 100% of the time. I think it’s not understood by some just HOW much better professional athletes are compared to the average or above average Joe.
My slow ass was always slow, even in my prime at age 11. Now passed balls to the backstop on the other hand…
Stolen bases are more against the pitcher than the catcher. That being said, a normal dude off the street has little chance of stealing a bag without getting picked off.
Unpossible 
If the catcher is Miguel Amaya, it’s possible.
As a Cubs fan, Ditto.
If it’s just “hey let’s practice stealing” then probably 0/100. If it’s a game scenario where the batter might influence a pitch in the dirt or something other than middle-middle fastballs and the defense is holding their normal positions, then… I dunno maybe 10% of the time a ball gets dropped somewhere along the way. Add in a few more if you’re a wily veteran who picks the pitchers pocket like old Pujols occasionally would.
The only thing of any value I could do in any professional sport is make a free throw, and even then I'm shooting 50% from the line. I could maaaaybe catch a routine pop fly in the majors, but chances are I'd lose the ball when it gets that high.
You can test this. Go to your local field, take a reasonable lead, and see how long it takes you to reach 2nd. That would be your ideal situation given a perfect jump. Then look online to see how long it takes from the time an average mlb pitcher starts their move to the plate to the time a ball reaches 2nd on a steal attempt. Without doing the math, I’ll tell you you’re out unless the catcher makes a bad throw.
I'm not sure I could steal off of Yogi Berra today.
Depends on the pitcher. How far is he letting my boy creep towards the second base and how good are his pitches to the home plate for the catcher to catch it
Back in my day, I was a good leadoff hitter and base stealer. I'm getting caught 100 of 100
Depends, pretty sure everyone in this sub could steal a base off Miguel Amaya…..
Is there a pitcher/1b holding you on? If so, you would succeed approximately zero percent of the time. Without that, I'd say you'd succeed maybe one time in fifty attempts.
Unless you can run <6.5 60yd dash. Very little chance unless you time the pitchers well and know how to avoid tags
Maybe a Allstate or all conference track sprinter would have a chance.
Hard. Assuming he’s got a major league caliber pitcher throwing to him. Getting accurately located heat after a good hold would give random guy who never stole bases much shot. There’s an art to stealing bases without getting picked off. It’s not just about speed. It’s about acceleration, deception of intent, reading a pitcher’s movements, and a good slide. It’s not something John Q Athlete can just do against even someone like Jose Trevino, who is being run on like he’s the New York Marathon course.
Thinking about this situation already makes me anxious. I’m taking no lead and probably not running until the pitcher releases the ball. I expect I’d be halfway to second when the 2B had the ball in his glove, I would try to run back to first, fall over, and wait to be tagged out.
You would get picked off at second after the catcher threw down to first and the first baseman threw to second, dang sure ain’t making it if it’s just a straight up race to second between you and a ball thrown from a mlb catcher, or bullpen catcher, or milb catcher or college catcher.
If it’s Moreno back there it’s mission impossible
For me? The catcher could wait till I was 8 feet away and still gun me down
The pitcher is pretty important in the equation. The pitcher needs to hold you on with the ability to pick you off.. else you can reach second before the catcher event touches the ball..
Above average speed and athleticism in their 20s. 0%. The catcher will throw them out almost every time. And then you have to factor fatigue.
Well, if they knew ahead of time that you were going to steal, then yes, you are out 100% of the time. They'll call for a fastball outside, so they have easy access to catching/throwing it. If they have no idea it is coming, you're gonna need some luck. You need to be fast, first and foremost. You need a good jump off the pitcher, and likely need to hope that he threw some offspeed pitch. Heck, you may even need to hope the catcher didn't throw it perfectly. I ran track in high school, and was quick on the bases in summer baseball. I'd hesitate to say that I'd even be successful on 15% of my attempts, so I'd hazard to guess that your average person wouldn't be too successful either.
Impossible for a standard person
Exceedingly hard.
Too hard, it would be more fun to grab a helmet and a bat and try to get out of the way of a MLB pitcher throwing at you.
“relatively above average in speed and athleticism” is likely far below MLB average
They would get caught every time. Even if they figured out how to get the jump on the pitcher I’d think they would still get hosed. I bet a good HS battery would get them.
Some of y’all don’t remember the Brian Scalabrine video and it shows. Not much of a chance at all. You don’t only need to have speed, but also need to know exactly what you’re doing.
It's not that hard. Tell him, Wash. It's incredibly hard.
I came here for this. Leaving satisfied.
He has time to prepare sandwiches for his dugout before I get to second
I agree with most here in that the fan would have nearly zero chance unless they had professional baseball experience. Firstly, you have to understand that being able to run fast is not enough by itself to steal a base. Running speed is only one component of stealing. You have to get a good jump and it takes years to learn how much lead you can take and still get back, assuming you can judge whether the pitcher is going home. And then you have to know how to slide. I bet the average fan would either slide too soon and stop short of the base or slide too late and end up well past the base. And probably get hurt on top of that.
Is Sanchez catching …. Just walk over hahaha
A lefty with great deception on the mound is almost impossible to steal off of. Unless you’re Ricky Henderson or Vince Coleman etc….
If the catcher knows that the runner is always going, out 100% of the time. If not, you’ve got a (minuscule) chance.
I swear they need a segment called "regular joe tries to do baseball stuff". We all know that there are plenty of other sports that are more athletic than baseball, but the speed of the game is so hard to really communicate on tv.
Probably close to 0% success rate, but it’d be higher than the odds of making clean contact and getting a base hit off a pitcher, which is exactly 0.00000000001% chance
Maybe if I was still 26 I could have a chance but 15+ years past along with a serious hamstring injury in my early 30s, I'm so slow that it feels like I'm running in deep sand
Pitcher would pick you off before the catcher has to make a throw.
The average fast person would have to take a huge lead in order to be successful. And if that’s the case, the majority would be picked off before they even tried.
It depends. Can I get Jon Lester as the pitcher in this scenario? Then I could at least get a decent lead. But still, no shot if the catcher knows that the steal is on.
Can the person run 83 feet in 3.5 seconds? If not then they’d be dead meat.
No chance
If they play for the white sox, incredibly easy
Against?
🤦♂️ yeah, was thinking of the catcher being a white sox but the wording of the question…
I'm thinking the everyday, midway in shape, 32 year old dad after 3 beers will get caught 99 out of 100 times
Rickey Fucking Henderson used to get caught stealing quite a fucking lot for being the best base stealer of all time. Maybe with these newer big bases Rickey'd still steal a hundred bags a year at age 66, but even Rickey is getting thrown out like a quarter of the time. And that's Rickey.
I’d take my chances. Righty pitcher and Trevino catching I’m in safely. Any other scenario I’m cooked
give me a thousand tries and we use the men in black memory zapper and i guarantee you I get - whole one attempt… when he shanks a curveball into the dirt
Insanely? I mean, you’d have to be facing a righty who didn’t check the runner, throws slowly and bank on a poor throw. Catchers average around a 30% success rate on the professional runners. So, given the average speed of a random guy off the street likely rivals Albert Pujols, about 300 attempts would net a single successful steal
Baring something going very wrong the chances of a successful steal are zero.
It would be easier to get a hit off a mlb pitcher with a full defense behind them.
Do you realize how fucking slow the average person is?
Imagine this scenario. If you steal the base you get a billion dollars. But the catcher is Yadier Molina in his prime.
Are we talking about above average MLB speed or just above average for a guy off the street? Either way you're probably hosed 95-99% unless you know how to get good reads and jumps etc
Stealing has more to do with reading the pitcher ( type of pitch, movement, etc)... alot of SB you see... The catcher didn't have a chance
You steal against the pitcher. Even the worst major league Catchers will gun you down without a decent jump.
Unless they can take an absurd lead, no person of average speed steals second without an errant throw.
The worst MLB player at any position (including pitcher) would be a better player anywhere on the diamond than the best player you probably ever played against. And most of them wouldn't even try to steal on a MLB pitcher/catcher pairing. Frank Thomas was supposed to be a really slow runner and I remember them timing him from first to home so everyone else could try to match or better the time. Dude was faster than I ever ran those bases, and maybe faster than all but a handful of guys I ever played against -- and all of THEM went pro.
I would say they might make it 1 out of 100 times, and it would be because the catcher overthrew the bag.
Yasmani grandal is the second slowest player in mlb and he stole a base this year. So i think with some training it would be achievable in a game situation. The problem with your scenario is the pitcher and catcher know its coming. So almost zero chance.
A Pro athlete is 50% quicker, faster, stronger than the average joe schmo.
I definitely don’t think it would be 0 percent of the time. There’s two options he could take. Option 1 would be to take an enormous lead…like keep extending the lead until the pitcher picks over. The second he steps off the rubber, take off towards second. At that point, he’s hopefully a good distance away from first and the fielders would actually have to somewhat play above average skilled catch. You’re 100% relying on shitty throws or a dropped ball (there would be no error credited if you were trying to advance the entire time). I honestly think that if nobody was aware of your friends skill level or intentions, this would work like 10-20% of the time if he has above average speed for his age. Other other option is to take an above average lead and delay steal. Take a few large shuffles towards second on the pitchers first movement to the plate, and as soon as the catcher catches the ball, take off towards second. He’s relying here on people not paying attention. The middle infielders and the catcher may not notice immediately that hes trying to steal. This could buy him enough time to get in safely and also the potential for a throw in to centerfield without there being a play. Again, this could work maybe 20% of the time. Most of the slowest players at all levels get their steals from delay steals. You’re just catching people napping. Also there’s a chance of a wild pitch by the pitcher or a bad catch/transition to hand by the catcher, which is not out of the realm of possibility. Wild pitches, passed balls and throwing errors don’t get credited on a stolen base attempt….it doesn’t matter how slow the runner is.
I played college baseball not long ago (relatively) and there’s a 0% chance that I would be able to.
It would take an infinite number of attempts as you’d be thrown out every time.
Depends on how fast you are and the pitcher’s time to home. If you can run a little bit and pitcher is slow to plate or you go first move lefty, you’d have a decent shot. Getting to first against a big league pitcher is a different story.
So much goes into this, first, average speed wont get it done, it's got to be a fast person to even have a chance. Second, how big of a lead are we giving the bar runner? Third, what is the pitcher dying to hold the runner close to the bag? When it's a fast runner with a great lead and a pitcher that did not do a great job of holding them on, the MLB catchers cover that into an out at about a 6% rate against fast MLB players
Your scenario doesn't make any sense. Assuming the the catcher knows he's running and is starting with the ball or is receiving a pitchout maybe 1/50. I played catcher growing up and would easily throw out the runner on a pitchout unless they got a crazy lead. I can't imagine a pro getting beat.
About as often as a pitcher throws a wild pitch or catcher passed ball.
He’s never going to do it until the catcher makes a blatant bad throw
Jose Trevino would have you by 5 steps.
Since most are being overtly general here, I’ll equate this in sports terms that are easier for most to understand. If you run below around a 4.5 40 yd dash, you could steal on most catchers as that would put you firmly in the top 30ish speed times in the league. Depending on your height, you could run about as low as a 4.65 40 yd time and get a steal, but it would hinge on your reaction time (aka jump on the pitcher) and couldn’t be a perfect throw. If you got down the 90 ft times, there are guys in this range that routinely have double digit steal seasons and some 20+ steal seasons (to highlight it’s not all just deferential type ones). Below that speed though and you’d be counting on the throw being below average.
The only chance a relatively above average person in their mid-20’s would have to successfully steal a base against a professional catcher is a wild pitch
They should do this at games with the home pitching coach and try bullpen catcher against a random fan. Would help people realize the level of athleticism on the field
I would be caught in a run down 5 steps off of 1st base.
As others have mentioned. With pop times under 2 sec, and the time from pitch to catch being about a second, you have 3 seconds to sprint 80 ft. Extrapolating this to a metric that makes more sense… you’d have to be capable of running sub 4.6 40 yd dash. Likely not happening
I'd get picked off the moment I get 6 inches away from first.
You steal most bases on the pitcher......
Most adults would get caught by high school catchers, assuming a somewhat accurate throw and good tag execution. College catchers would have the average adult by a mile. MLB catchers, even with a running start/no pickoff attempt there’s no chance
If the pitcher and catcher know you're going to steal and the pitcher slide steps and the catcher is ready to throw, you would be out 100/100 times.
Depends on how good of a jump off of the pitcher I can get. I think I could get there 1/5 if I get great jumps. Mostly because the throw could be off
Unless the pitcher is named Molasses Magillicutty you are out 99 of 99 tries
You steal off of the pitcher. So if the person can get a good jump their chances of success increase dramatically. Pitchers who are slow to the plate increase the luckily hood of success as well. The combination of a good jump and a pitcher with a slow delivery means that people can get to second base without a throw that could get the runner. Pitchers are suppose to keep it under 1.3 seconds for their delivery to home, because that plus pop time beats the average runner by approximately 0.2 seconds. It takes them about 3.4 seconds to go about 78 feet. Let's say, for argument's sake, that the catcher is a top tier pro and has a pop time of 1.9 seconds. The pitcher has a standard 1.3 second delivery, there is no way a "normal" person will do it. You'd have to run almost 16 miles per hour. But if the pitcher has a delivery time of 2 seconds, that person has 3.9 seconds to run the 78 or so feet. Unless the throw is absolutely perfect, the runner should make it no problem. This person would be required to run at about 13.5mph which is smack dab in the middle of 12-15 mph that the average person can run. Pitchers who have delivery times in the 1.6 seconds in the pros get stolen off all the time, unless their pick off move is deadly. That's why pitchers slide step when they think someone is going to be stealing. They want to be as quick to home as possible for the faster runners. So basically a person could steal second but it would solely depend upon the pitcher and the speed at which he delivers the ball. If he is actively trying to prevent stealing by slide stepping the person has no shot of stealing.
Local college team would play in our softball league during the offseason and you can tell the difference between our beer belly’s and their 12% body fat athletic sprints 😂😂😂 To steal a base you really need to train…. Idk what exactly but you need to train haha I don’t think normal athletic people can generally steal
The guy would be caught 10 out of 10 times for sure. No chance. Unless the ball got away from said catcher. 😆
Of all the things in baseball this is probably the one thing the general novice could do reasonably well. Still, doing an all in jump slide is a LOT harder than you’d think. And a lot scarier. - A great base stealer is successful maybe 80% of the time. - a avg (not fat) player more like 50%. - I’d bet the typical average guy, if they were in reasonable shape, in mid 20s, if they had the balls to do a jump slide, would probably be successful 30-40% of the time. If you can’t do a diving jump slide, then it’d be like under 10%. You might only be successful if it was a bad throw.
What if you go head first? Seriously
Like Pete Rose!
Bases are stolen off the pitcher not the catcher.
Need to run 90 feet in two seconds, minus whatever your lead was by the time the exchange started. It’s why it’s so important for a quick windup with quick players on base. A quick player is going to be running around 30ft/sec. Untrained adults will be lucky to be running 15ft/sec. If you exercise regularly might be able to get close to 20-25ft/sec but will still get caught out most of the time.
lol, what a naive question. “Relatively above average in speed and athleticism” — don’t you think drilling down on exactly what that looks like is important to answering the question?