Lenny, how come sometimes a player will come off the field, an infielder, and will have made the last out of the inning. On his way to the dugout he under-hands the ball into the stands and immediately always seems to catch another ball someone has tossed out of the dugout to him. Seen it happen a bunch of times as they go to commercial break. Know what I'm talking about? Is it just some little habit/ritual thingie? - John
John, you're exactly right about what you're seeing, it's a thingie, though not directly related to TV commercials.
The fielder you'll see doing this is the first baseman, the one wearing the red thong under his uniform. Slow, quiet, strong and tall, he's the team's co-dependent enabler who makes up for strong-armed infielders' erratic throws. It's not a very tiring position, most of the players setting records for consecutive games played without needing a day off have been at first base, like Lou Gehrig, who lived with his parents until he was almost 30 and screen-tested for Tarzan but they didn't like his NY accent, and Steve Garvey who was being groomed to be the next Ronald Reagan before it was discovered that he had a bunch of kids with a bunch of women only one of which was his wife. Not Cal Ripken though. He was tall but played short.
Anyway, before each inning starts, while you're watching a commercial for beer or truck, the first baseman helps each infielder to warm up their arm by flipping them a practice grounder or two. Very nice. But we don't want him looking around for next inning's warm up ball, not cool, so we appoint someone on the bench to flip him a ball at the end of every inning as he runs off the field. The ball will be his glove when he grabs it to run back out on the field, very cool. We never walk on or off the field, that's bad luck, unless your pitching, then running would waste precious strength.
But what does the first baseman do if the last out of an inning is at first base? He has to get rid of that ball before he catches the warm up ball. Can't not flip to him, can't have two balls at the same time. Both would be very unlucky. Those game balls are flipped as souvenirs to the wealthy people who sit close to the field, preferably a rich kid who was driven to the game in a truck or a beautiful, young, blonde woman drinking a beer, either of whom will squeal with delight. At most pro and amateur levels, baseballs are used until they're warn out, first in the game, then as practice balls. Not in today's big-money major leagues.
But he's not the youngest pro ever. That honor goes to Joe Louis Reliford, a 12-year-old Fitzgerald Pioneers batboy in the Class D Georgia State League in 1952. On July 19th, he played the one inning of a 13-0 blowout - hitting the ball hard for an out in one at bat and making two stellar defensive plays in the outfield.