re: First baseman had wrong foot on the bag restricting his ability to stretch for the throw

quote:

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I didn't say stand with his foot across the bag. He should set his right foot AGAINST the bag with his body in a semi crouch allowing him flexibility to move in either direction and catch the damn ball in the field of play without " face planitng" into the runner. When he sees the ball is off target he has the option to stretch and maintain contact with the base which seems plausible by the photos. But even if the throw was farther up the line a quick step and/ or lunge toward home makes it likely the ball doesn't leave the field. I agree an errant throw toward the infield side would be more challenging but the odds of that are far less than what did happen.

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Right. But your scenario is trying to prepare for the harder play. That’s not how baseball works. Everyone has assigned jobs to do. Milazzo in this case did not do his assigned job which is delivering the ball in the window that Jones appropriately provided him.