Sliding into 1st base.....

[obbay]

damn- I wrote a lot and lost it.

It can work some times, if exeuted perfectly, but it still might look to the umpire like the runner will not beat the ball. Like a riseball appears to keep rising when in reality it's trajectory flattens out.

To refer to the Sprinting reference above, Sprinters lean into the tape, sometimes falling forward to get to the tape quicker than if they just kept running.

Even if sliding does get the runner there a half step quicker, it opens the possibility of injury that wouldn't happen if you ran straight thru the bag.

 

[coach james]

Pete Rose would tell us all to shut up on this one!
Then he'd place a bet that it is in fact faster

I don't remember Pete Rose ever sliding into first base...... I don't think he'd advocate it either.

You obviously aren't a Reds fan.... he was nicknamed Charlie Hustle because he was constantly sliding into 1st head first.
I personally think it's slower than sprinting straight through, and it can easily result in an injury, then to add insult, the runner is probably called out...

 

[cuzmail]

Somewhere I saw a ESPN Sports Science? study on sliding head first vs. running to first.

IIRC, at first the slide is quicker with the extra leg push to slide, then they are about the same. Things change when the runner places their foot on the ground again and they re-accelerate. The slide is slowly decelerating even at a faster pace once their body in on the ground. Bottom line the runner beats the slider to the base.

 

[slingnit]

You obviously aren't a Reds fan.... he was nicknamed Charlie Hustle because he was constantly sliding into 1st head first.
I personally think it's slower than sprinting straight through, and it can easily result in an injury, then to add insult, the runner is probably called out...

You are obviously not a Pete Rose at all because he was not constantly sliding head first into first base. And the certainly had nothing to do with his nickname. Whitey Ford gave him the nickname after watching him run out a walk and then climb the fence to catch a Mantle HR that actually cleared the yard by 100+ feet. He said to Mickey "you see oh Charlie Hustle out there?".

 

[slingnit]

Somewhere I saw a ESPN Sports Science? study on sliding head first vs. running to first.

IIRC, at first the slide is quicker with the extra leg push to slide, then they are about the same. Things change when the runner places their foot on the ground again and they re-accelerate. The slide is slowly decelerating even at a faster pace once their body in on the ground. Bottom line the runner beats the slider to the base.

So slide way late and it is faster!! lol But i do think how you go head first makes a difference. If you go down soft where feet drag the whole dive as opposed to someone like Rose that was air born for the duration of the slide. But he came down hard and the potential for injury was higher. IMO



[video]http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=10766501[/video]

 

[Rocketech1]

The other problem with not staying on your feet is if it's an overthrow to 1st base, you have less time to quickly get to 2B.

 

[BobInMadison]

I saw Rose with the Phillies a few times. He would slide headfirst into second on a stolen base. He said the Reds manager stopped letting him steal, due to fear of injury.

I read Rose's book "My Prison Without Walls". Seriously, some of the best softball stories I have ever read were in that book. Rose played adult men's fast pitch with his father on "Dud" Zimmer's team at the age of 12! There were a lot of father-son combos on that team, and three of the kids wound up in the Majors. The team manager, Zimmer, kept trying to get the Reds to look at his softball stars. After two of them, including Dud's son, Don Zimmer, were already in the majors, Zimmer asked the Reds scout how many times he was going to keep on making the same mistake. The Reds signed Rose right after that.

Other interesting stories involve Rose as the coach of a prison softball team, which finally beat the guards. Rose said it felt like "The Longest Yard".

 

[Little Angels Softball]

Sliding is slower than sprinting through a base. Always.

Sliding at 1B for any other reason than avoiding a tag on an errant throw is a base running error and should be treated as such. I'll even go a step further and say that sliding head-first at any base for any other reason than avoiding a tag is a base running error and should be treated as such.