RateItAll: The Opinion Network

This is not cheating in my opinion, it is deception, its like running a trick play in football. The exception is that if it is done like Planetary Gear writes where Matt Williams asks a runner to step off the base so he can clean the bag, then its lying or knowingly spready false information to a player, which becomes cheating.

I saw this attempted in Little League, but never saw it work. . .certainly merits a listing here. . .

Okay, so I know it’s not cheating, but this list just would not be complete without this items inclusion, as it certainly falls under the umbrella of 'aggressive gamesmanship': this is a play that involves deceiving the base runner about the location of the ball in an attempt to have him tagged out. You gotta be a real dirty bird to pull this off properly. Third baseman, Mike Lowell (then with the Diamondbacks) was the last player to do it. There are several different ways to pull this play off, but I liked the technique that Matt Williams used with success on more than one occasion: he would politely ask the runner at third base to step off the bag so he could sweep off the dirt and would then proceed to tag the runner out once he complied. This is one of those rare, improvised moments in baseball that are nice to reflect upon once you see them happen.