i spent a lot of time as a kid playing pickle. when i grew up, it became known as a 'rundown'. why? anyway, maybe it doesn't happen too often in games, or maybe it's not as photogenic as a swing, but i would like to see this kind of action more often on baseball cards. i do have these three cards which happen to showcase the anatomy of pickle.
first, on chris gomez's 1994 upper deck card, we see the runner, who might have stopped short on an attempted steal being chased by gomez, who has the ball in his gloveless hand which is the proper position for a quick throw to the fielder waiting at the other base. i am assuming gomez is running the player back towards first, because that is the correct thing to do as well.
finally, the runner is tagged out as leo gomez demonstrates on his 1995 topps stadium club card.
that's 2-6-2-5-3 if you're scoring at home!
I noticed the name switch at some point too...never did understand it. Kind of like when suicide became wall ball. Only that one at least sort of made sense.
ReplyDeleteWe played so much pickle in Mr. Swansons front yard, that we wore a path between bases.
ReplyDeleteWe invented a version of the game where we had a home plate, 1st base, and second base. We would try to 'pick0off' the base runner, or he would try to steal second.
Memories. Thanks.
I added a link to this blog on my blog...my blog is http://ultimateset.blogspot.com/ and I did an entry today on the 1982 Dodgers.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I played a lot of pickle myself, at least until I tore up my ankle my stepping into a hole between the bases/trees. That put a black mark on the game for me for a bit. But I would gladly play these days. It's a lot better than work!
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