New MLB rule make this crazy baserunning play illegal, a breakdown

cuz we've got crazy base running. We've

got rules. We've got new rules. We've

got gaming the game. We've got first

pitch hanging curveball that gets fouled

back right in their face. He's like,

"Yo, I got it on my phone. Check this

out. I filmed it." And we got another

pitch back foot slider for a ball. The

1-1 pitch is going to be hit in play.

Diving stopped by the third baseman.

Goes to second for the final out, but

the runner stormed through the base.

That means the runner on third has

already scored. The runner on second is

trying to score now. He's in a rund

down. He's trying to make it last. Get

the And then he runs into the pitcher

who was in the baseline and they say

obstruction. He scores two. It should

have been an end in ending out. Instead,

the Pirates get two runs on it. They're

pumped. They're like, "Hold on. Let's

take a look. They end up not challenging

this. It was so close. Look how close

this play is at second base. They don't

challenge it.

I don't I think if they challenge it, it

wouldn't have been overturned anyway

because MLB, they love saying this call

stands. Look how close this is. There's

the ball. The ball hits the back of the

glove right there. Right. I'm going

backwards now. I'm going forwards and

I'm going to right there. You can see.

And has he touched already with his

spikes? Maybe the the base hasn't

crunched. I don't think they would have

overturned it. Probably would have

wasted a challenge. But what I want to

talk about is this play where the runner

on first just runs through second base

because he get it allows him to not slow

down and try to beat the throw and then

he gets in a rundown which allows the

runner on third to score and they get a

run out of it from nowhere. I want to

show you guys the history of this play.

Some of you might remember this, some

may not. I went to 2022 and I found

every time there was bases loaded, two

outs and the final out is at second

base. And majority, vast majority of the

plays looked like this. The runner

slides in because he's got to stop his

momentum. Maybe they bobble it and he's

safe, but he's sliding into the bag and

that's what he's doing. And I'm going to

guess in the history of baseball up to

this point, that's kind of what it

looked like. You could correct me if I'm

wrong, but this is the footage I have.

This is the recent history of it. I did

find in 2022 three examples. The first

was on June 4th, 2022. Cardinals Cubs,

it's bases loaded, two outs, and we're

tied three apiece in the top of the

ninth. Goldies up. He's going to put it

in play, and they're going to go to

second, and you're going to see the

Cardinals runner run right through the

bag. First time I saw that. Tries to

beat it. Then this is the famous one.

It's the first time we saw this work.

The Cardinals runner runs through the

bag. He beats it. The run scores from

third. Now they're in a rundown. Are

they going to get a second run like we

just saw the Pirates do? Uh let's see.

Wait. But this was the first time we saw

that play really work and we're like,

"Wow, that's smart." And no, they called

the runner out of the baseline. Then on

July 24th, the Cubs were like, "Hey,

should we try the play that they keep

doing?" And they run through the bag,

treat it at like as like first base. And

those are the three times in 2022 we saw

a runner do this. Now, fast forward to

2023 because it's a copycat league. And

I found a lot of examples of rounding

second in case you beat it. Get the

rundown on this play. And we saw it work

twice. We saw the Cardinals again do it

here. He beat the throw, but then he got

tagged out on his body as he rounded it.

We got slow-mo here. So, he did beat the

throw. He was on his way, but

tagged him out right there. Now, if the

runner on third was able to score

before the tag, they would have got a

run here, but that it didn't happen. It

was very quick. And then we had another

example in 2023 where they did beat the

throw. We've got the Brewers doing it.

So, it's an NL Central thing and they

say safe. So, the runner on third scores

another run for the Brewers. Now,

they've got the rundown situation and we

are going to Are we going to botch? Are

we going to get interference? No, we're

just going to get an out here. And then

they're like, hold up, let's check the

replay. I think he was out and not safe,

so that run should not score. And yes,

umpire got the call wrong. So, actually,

it didn't work. But what teams really

started doing in 2023 was acting like

second base was first base and just

running straight through it. And the

thinking here is, well, if they call you

out and then it goes to replay and turns

out you were safe, they're going to put

the runner back at second base because

the runner is going to say, "Well, I ran

out of the base path because you said

out so I thought it didn't matter." And

the umpires were like, "Ah, man." Good

loophole. You get second base. So, we

saw a lot of teams do this. Hey, just

run as fast as you can. And if they call

you out and it happens you were safe,

then we can go to replay and they'll

just put you back at second base.

So, this was like a new fad in 2023

where I only saw two instances of this

in all of the 2022 footage that I looked

at. And the league saw all of that

happening and was like,

I don't like it. So, they made a rule.

They said, "No, if you overrun second

base and you run out of the baseline,

even if replay says you are safe, you're

going to be out for running out of the

baseline." That was the new rule. So MLB

didn't say you can't run through second

and round it on your way to third. They

said you can't run through second and

exit the baseline. We're going to call

that back. which meant teams could still

try to round second on this play in

hopes they beat it or the ball is

dropped and they can score and get in a

rundown. It never happened in 2025. We

still got some guys doing it. It's never

worked. Only the one time by the

Cardinals. We even had some players

still running through second base

treating it like first base even though

they changed rule. We got Jock Peterson

here being like, "Safe, safe, safe."

Having no idea that if he was safe, he'd

be immediately out for running out of

the baseline, even if they went to

review it. So, no one updated Jock on

the new rule. And a a couple other guys,

a handful, but it died down. So, that's

the one rule when I saw this play that

we had yesterday where I was like,

"Wait, I thought they made a rule about

that." And then I went and I brushed up

on my history. And this is not affected

by the rule they changed cuz he rounded

second on his way to third. He stayed

within the baseline and continued on his

way. So, we're clear there. Legal. Now,

the next part of this play that

everyone's looking at and wondering

like, uh, I thought you updated a rule

about this is this one. So, it's called

obstruction because the defender got in

the way of the runner, but did the

runner initiate contact? cuz last year

we had this Kobe Mayo play where he

turns and just runs into the fielder. Um

cuz you know he's trying to get an

obstruction call and goes out of his way

to make contact hoping the umpires would

call it. They didn't. It's a bad look.

And MLB was like, "Let's tell umpires

that if the runner goes out of his way

to initiate contact, they should call

interference on that and not

obstruction." So, they did that. So,

then you got to look at this play and

say, who's getting in whose way? Because

the jumping to me looks like he's

initiating contact. When I first saw

this, I was like, I mean, the runner

definitely initiated contact. He puts

both his arms up and jumps into him. Not

like his natural running motion.

But I don't know because Kintana is in

the base path. So I don't think that's

what the rule update or the telling the

umpires to call it was. I think it's

more the Mayo thing where they go and

touch someone who's like wildly not in

their way at all. Because if he was to

try and go around Canana here, it might

slow him down. He He doesn't have his

full speed straight line because Canana

is there. He doesn't know how much he's

backing out of the way. He made it very

obvious by jumping into him.

But I do think if he just ran as fast as

he could straight, he still would have

made contact because Canana's in the

base path. And I so I think I think the

umpire got it right, but I did it

initially. Initially I was like, "No, he

definitely initiates." But that's not

really exactly how the rule is. And you

just got to love the pizzazz with which

this is called. Like boom boom hopping

around. Yep. Love it. So what do you

guys got? I changed my mind on this one.

Initially I was like that runner

initiated that contact. But when he

first touches him, Kana's in the

baseline. He's in the way. He's going to

hinder the speed of which he's running.

whether the dude jumps or not. He just

wanted to make it a little more clear,

make sure it gets called. He didn't go

out of his way to hit a fielder who was

not even in the baseline. That's my

thoughts. What do you guys got? Fun play

either way. Stole two runs out of

nowhere. And thank you very much for

enjoying this history lesson and

breakdown, which is brought to you by

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