Bizarre Baseball Happenings, As Always

I love collecting baseball oddities — a fact that helps to explain my extreme fondness for ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian and his fascinating Kurk-Gems segment from Baseball Tonight. And also helps explain why the past weekend was so much fun for this devoted Observer of the Wild and Wacky World of Baseball.

On Thursday, Brewers’ SS Jean Segura turned this (unusual) double play:

Saturday, the Rays’ Desmond Jennings turned this (even more unusual) double play:

Yet both paled in comparison to Segura’s Friday night base-running adventures. (Pay close attention. There might be a quiz later.)

Rule 7.08(i) reminds us that a batter is out if …”After he has acquired legal possession of a base, he runs the bases in reverse order for the purpose of confusing the defense or making a travesty of the game.” My instinct is to say that there’s a travesty being made out of something in that Segura sequence, but the official addendum to Rule 7.08(i) absolves him:

If a runner touches an unoccupied base and then thinks the ball was caught or is decoyed into returning to the base he last touched, he may be put out running back to that base, but if he reaches the previously occupied base safely he cannot be put out while in contact with that base.

Attribution(s): Photos courtesy of Getty Images, which allows the use of certain images “as long as the photo is not used for commercial purposes (meaning in an advertisement or in any way intended to sell a product, raise money, or promote or endorse something).”