Friday puzzle -- base runner

Time for hints?

Four involve a batter hitting the ball, and one of these four is pretty rare.

Of the remaining five:

• One you will see in almost every game.



• One is common, but seeing a game without it wouldn't be rare.



• Two are rarer, although you have certainly seen them if you are a baseball fan. (In fact, if I remember right, one occurred it in one of the ALCS games.)



• The last is quite rare.

Re: Friday puzzle -- base runner

Here are some of the ways; not sure how they match up with Alex's hints:

1.Joe hit a single.

2.Joe was walked by the pitcher.

3.Joe was hit by a pitched ball.

4.Joe swung on the third strike, the catcher dropped the ball, and Joe ran to first before the catcher could throw him out.

5.Joe hit the ball, but the fielder made an error on the throw to first.

6.Not sure about this one, but fielder's choice; there was another man on first, Joe hit the ball and the fielder threw out the base runner while Joe ended safe at first.

2/3 of the way there!

Hint

Two of the three remaining ones are pretty rare -- a team may go and entire season without putting a man on first in one of these ways.

The third missing one is not nearly so rare, although by no means an "every-game" type of occurrence. But it will take a little out-of-the-box thinking to come up with this one.

Prtial solution and hint

Larry got six of the ways. I mentioned that two are pretty obscure. They are:

• Catcher interference: If the catcher interferes with a batter's swing (most likely while trying to grab a pitch to throw out a stealing baserunner), the batter is awarded first.



• Interference with the baserunner. If a fielder impedes the progress of the baserunner, he is awared the base, but it is not counted as a hit.

The last one is more of a puzzle, in that it takes a little out-of-the-box thinking. The puzzle was specifically worded to allow this answer. I could have asked a very similar question that this answer did not fit. The score in the puzzle wording was not relevant. In fact, a player is more likely to be on first due to this reason when the team at bat is behind in the late innings.

Friday answer -- base runner

Okay, looks like no baseball junkies here.

The nine ways a player can come to be on first base are:

• hit



• error



• fielder's choice



• base on balls



• struck batsman



• advance on dropped third strike



• catcher interference



• interference with baserunner, and



• pinch runner

Re: Friday answer -- base runner

I would watch baseball, but I never could figure out how they manage to hit the ball into the goal net standing in one place. ;-)

Ducking and running ;-)