Werth stuns Dodgers with steal of home | MLB.com: News

Werth gets on first, steals second, third and home

My dad used to claim, in one of his more outlandish yarns, that opposing teams were afraid to give him an intentional walk with the bases empty because he would just steal second, third and home, making an intentional walk the same as a home run. You see this was back in the day when he basically homered in every at bat.

What was the defensive response, according to him? The double intentional walk. The opponents would not only walk him, but they would give the guy in front of him an intentional pass, thus clogging up the basepaths and making sure he stayed on first.

On a serious note, when I was coaching co-ed softball, I occasionally used just as outlandish a strategy: the intentional strikeout. See, here's the deal: the best guys in co-ed softball hit over .900 and the weakest women bat below .200. Let's suppose I have a weak, slow woman at bat and my clean-up hitter on deck. (Co-ed rules require alternating batters man/woman, irrespective of how many of each are playing, so hitters do not follow the same person in every at-bat unless there are exactly the same number of each gender.) There are runners on first and third, one out, last inning, we're down by a run. If she hits a pathetic grounder, it's a double play, game over, we lose. She can do absolutely anything else, and we'll win the game. The strategy: she is not allowed to swing at any pitch under any circumstances. If she gets a walk, fine - we win the game. If she strikes out - fine - we win the game. As long as she doesn't make contact, it's in the bag! The intentional K. The strategy worked 100% of the times I used it - maybe three times in ten years of coaching - but it really took some persuasion before the women could understand how they could win the game by striking out.