Fascinating Video: Joe Mauer Tipping Pitches From Second Base
Just made my morning jaunt over to Deadspin and caught a fascinating video that shows Joe Mauer blatantly tipping pitches to Jason Kubel during the Twins-Tigers series.
Mauer is on second base with Justin Verlander pitching. The cat and mouse game, exquisitely captioned by whoever created the video, is a rare glimpse into the game-within-the-game that can be so often overlooked when watching a baseball game.
For some reason, all I can think about right now is how much I would love to hear Hawk Harrelson announcing this sequence.
Video after the jump.
The video (hat tip to Deadspin) is taken from the game two nights ago on September 29th when the Tigers, led by a strong start from Verlander, beat the Twins 6-5. It shows how the Twins got their second run of the game, in the 6th inning, on a sacrifice fly from Kubel.
Mauer finished 1-5 for on the night with a double and an RBI, and as the video captions describe, he probably should have been credited with 1.5 RBIs for his work at second base.
Watch how the catcher keeps calling for new signs or calling time after Mauer motions towards his head with his head (tapping earhole for a curveball, the front of his face for a fastball). The frustration on the faces of Justin Verlander and Jim Leyland is obvious.
No wonder Ozzie Guillen loves the Twins so much.
Enjoy:
Video: Joe Mauer Tipping Pitching to Jason Kubel
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* – Joe Mauer photo credit: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images North America via Zimbio
Tags: baseball, Detroit Tigers, jason kubel, joe mauer, Justin Verlander, minnesota twins, MLB, tipping pitches, video
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The alleged "frustration" on Verlander and Leyland's faces are about something that happens all the time and not the tight situation that's going on in one of the biggest games of the season?? Verlander has had one bad inning in a number of his starts recently, so I'm sure that Leyland, who has that look on his face A LOT, is probably more concerned with JV and those runners in scoring position. I'm not seeing the look of frustration on JV as he looks fairly normal to me. I don't understand how leading subtitles can lead someone to think the entire clip and everyone involved is thinking about something so normal in baseball.
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Haywood Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:23 am
"normal in baseball", huh? He should've got a fastball in that ear he was pointing to next time up. Coming from a former pitcher. Ask any other former pitcher what should've happened next time Mauer was up. See what they say.
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