Diving into first

[Sammy Sofa]

Right, but what does it matter if it's faster or not? There's simply no getting around the injury-factor.

[seanimal]

Right, but what does it matter if it's faster or not? There's simply no getting around the injury-factor.

 

i guess that's probably true if you have some sort of mental disease that prevents you from conditional thought

[Sammy Sofa]

Right, but what does it matter if it's faster or not? There's simply no getting around the injury-factor.

 

i guess that's probably true if you have some sort of mental disease that prevents you from conditional thought

 

What am I missing here? As has been pointed out, you really have to be timing and positioning yourself just right to potentially be taking advantage of reaching the base quicker AND not sending your chances of stupidly injuring yourself through the roof. It doesn't seem like something you could ever really rely on consistently to get you to the base quicker, so what would change even if it's a lock that it could get you there quicker if done right? It's not exactly an easily teachable skill or ability.

[XZero771679666304]

Injury risk aside (not just from in game sliding, but all the practice sliding it would take to perfect the technique), it doesn't seem worth it when your technique has to be pretty much perfect to gain a tiny advantage (if in fact there is even an advantage to be had). What percentage of the time would a runner realistically be able to actually nail this theoretical technique perfectly in-game?

[Guest]

Injury risk aside (not just from in game sliding, but all the practice sliding it would take to perfect the technique), it doesn't seem worth it when your technique has to be pretty much perfect to gain a tiny advantage (if in fact there is even an advantage to be had). What percentage of the time would a runner realistically be able to actually nail this theoretical technique perfectly in-game?

0.0

[Sammy Sofa]

Would this still work is the runner's pants were full of foam instead of being about to burst?

[treebird]

what about the potential effects of telling the hitter that first base is full of thick onion gravy and the only way to eat it is to dive in face-first

[Guest]

for [expletive]'s sake...the question is just about whether it's possible to get there faster by diving than it is by running through. the practicality or consistent feasibility doesn't matter.

[Sammy Sofa]

Crunch those numbers for us, Conky.

[seanimal]

what about the potential effects of telling the hitter that first base is full of thick onion gravy and the only way to eat it is to dive in face-first

 

i don't think you're supposed to tag the base with your face, however divinely delicious it may be

[treebird]

what about the potential effects of telling the hitter that first base is full of thick onion gravy and the only way to eat it is to dive in face-first

 

i don't think you're supposed to tag the base with your face, however divinely delicious it may be

 

for [expletive]'s sake...the question is just about whether it's possible to get there faster by eating the contents of first base than it is by running through. the practicality or consistent feasibility doesn't matter.

[Guest]

treebird? dafuq?

[Guest]

what about the potential effects of telling the hitter that first base is full of thick onion gravy and the only way to eat it is to dive in face-first

 

i don't think you're supposed to tag the base with your face, however divinely delicious it may be

 

for [expletive]'s sake...the question is just about whether it's possible to get there faster by eating the contents of first base than it is by running through. the practicality or consistent feasibility doesn't matter.

 

hahahahaha

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

I think I was involved in this chat 7 years ago, and on the pro-dive side. The sprinter arguement doesn't really apply, as crossing the line is defined by the torso. Reaching your arm out doesn't count like just touching the bag does in baseball. I also don't see why this would be impossible to pull off with some practice. People run and dive at moving objects like baseballs all the time. How much harder (or easier) is it to dive at a stationary base?

[Guest]

I think I was involved in this chat 7 years ago, and on the pro-dive side. The sprinter arguement doesn't really apply, as crossing the line is defined by the torso. Reaching your arm out doesn't count like just touching the bag does in baseball. I also don't see why this would be impossible to pull off with some practice. People run and dive at moving objects like baseballs all the time. How much harder (or easier) is it to dive at a stationary base?

I'm getting sucked in here. They dive because that is where the baseball is going and that is the only way to catch it. If you dive at a stationary object it is impossible (or close to it) to run full speed before you leave your feet. After you leave your feet you are going slower (by definition) than when you are running. You'd have to time the dive to the last step from the base to wherever you could make it to the base in the air to not encounter friction from hitting the ground before you reach the base.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

I think I was involved in this chat 7 years ago, and on the pro-dive side. The sprinter arguement doesn't really apply, as crossing the line is defined by the torso. Reaching your arm out doesn't count like just touching the bag does in baseball. I also don't see why this would be impossible to pull off with some practice. People run and dive at moving objects like baseballs all the time. How much harder (or easier) is it to dive at a stationary base?

I'm getting sucked in here. They dive because that is where the baseball is going and that is the only way to catch it. If you dive at a stationary object it is impossible (or close to it) to run full speed before you leave your feet. After you leave your feet you are going slower (by definition) than when you are running. You'd have to time the dive to the last step from the base to wherever you could make it to the base in the air to not encounter friction from hitting the ground before you reach the base.

So you are saying you can dive to a point that a moving object is heading toward, but a stationary object is too difficult to pathom?

(Yes, you will slow down ever so slowly after you take your dive, but if you reach the bag without sliding with an outstretched arm, you get to arrive before your center of gravity does, and that would more than make up for air drag. I'm not even positive that "by definition" is right, as just taking steps has a frictional cost, too.)

[Guest]

When you're diving for a moving ball, you're most concerned about getting the glove to the ball(or where you think the ball is going to be), you can always adjust your arm/glove if you overshoot your target or don't have quite the right angle. Catching the ball is all that matters, not whether you catch it as fast as humanly possible. When you're diving for first, you have such a small advantage over running that those adjustments eat into and possibly eliminate the advantage. I don't really think it's realistic to time your steps and dive so well that you can get right to the base on a dive with any consistency, and of course this all leaves out that you're really likely to hurt yourself by practicing such dives and trying them with any regularity.

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

The ability to adjust is a good point, but I'm saying that athletes are fully capable of jumping and touching something at a point. The difficulty level is being grossly over estimated here. You could also use the "diving at a pylon" example.

 

As for injuries, each group was apprised to ignore that aspect of this matter, but yeah, no one here is advocating actually doing the dive on every close play. I myself think maybe this could be worthwhile in high leverage situations in a pennant race or in playoff games by your replacement level players (how devastating would it be if Couglan broke his wrist beating out a dp to drive in the winning run in the 9th of game 2 of the nlcs?)

[jersey cubs fan]

The ability to adjust is a good point, but I'm saying that athletes are fully capable of jumping and touching something at a point. The difficulty level is being grossly over estimated here. You could also use the "diving at a pylon" example.

 

As for injuries, each group was apprised to ignore that aspect of this matter, but yeah, no one here is advocating actually doing the dive on every close play. I myself think maybe this could be worthwhile in high leverage situations in a pennant race or in playoff games by your replacement level players (how devastating would it be if Couglan broke his wrist beating out a dp to drive in the winning run in the 9th of game 2 of the nlcs?)

 

You don't dive at a pylon though, you only dive to avoid being tackled/stepping out of bounds, before your arm crosses over an imaginary line

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

The ability to adjust is a good point, but I'm saying that athletes are fully capable of jumping and touching something at a point. The difficulty level is being grossly over estimated here. You could also use the "diving at a pylon" example.

 

As for injuries, each group was apprised to ignore that aspect of this matter, but yeah, no one here is advocating actually doing the dive on every close play. I myself think maybe this could be worthwhile in high leverage situations in a pennant race or in playoff games by your replacement level players (how devastating would it be if Couglan broke his wrist beating out a dp to drive in the winning run in the 9th of game 2 of the nlcs?)

 

You don't dive at a pylon though, you only dive to avoid being tackled/stepping out of bounds, before your arm crosses over an imaginary line

 

Yes, you do dive at a pylon, because touching the pylon is a touchdown, and that exact point is often the best route to take toward the endzone because of the angle the potential tacklers are taking to try and tackle you, since standing on the sideline would be a waste of space. What are you talking about? The line isn't imaginary, and neither is the pylon.

[Sammy Sofa]

The pylon is just a marker; you don't have to hit it at that point to score a touchdown. It's really not comparable to sliding in to 1B.

[jersey cubs fan]

The ability to adjust is a good point, but I'm saying that athletes are fully capable of jumping and touching something at a point. The difficulty level is being grossly over estimated here. You could also use the "diving at a pylon" example.

 

As for injuries, each group was apprised to ignore that aspect of this matter, but yeah, no one here is advocating actually doing the dive on every close play. I myself think maybe this could be worthwhile in high leverage situations in a pennant race or in playoff games by your replacement level players (how devastating would it be if Couglan broke his wrist beating out a dp to drive in the winning run in the 9th of game 2 of the nlcs?)

 

You don't dive at a pylon though, you only dive to avoid being tackled/stepping out of bounds, before your arm crosses over an imaginary line

 

Yes, you do dive at a pylon, because touching the pylon is a touchdown, and that exact point is often the best route to take toward the endzone because of the angle the potential tacklers are taking to try and tackle you, since standing on the sideline would be a waste of space. What are you talking about? The line isn't imaginary, and neither is the pylon.

 

You don't know football.

[Careless]

The ability to adjust is a good point, but I'm saying that athletes are fully capable of jumping and touching something at a point. The difficulty level is being grossly over estimated here. You could also use the "diving at a pylon" example.

Have you ever watched a player slide into first base (or second or third or home)? They miss a perfect slide every time

[JudasIscariotTheBird]

I'll have you know that I averaged over a sack a game during my short stint as a high school JV defensive tackle. I know my football almost as well Roy Knitski.

[Tracer Bullet]

Free deucebaseman

 

Man, some of you guys have incredible memories for these banned posters. That was 7 years ago.

 

I thought for sure someone bumped that thread.