Tony Kemp Throws To Invisible First Baseman

Franco. It's the pop-up from Franco in the short center and out from second, Tony Kemp. And now the ball loose on the throwback to first. Nobody there. Okay, so here's a play you don't see every day. I don't think I've seen this before. It's the A's, the Rays, but when you're watching the A's, anything can happen. We've got the bottom of the sixth, man on first, nobody out. Wander Franco at the plate and he is going to pop up to shallow center field shortstop second base and go back to make the play. Tony Kemp catches it, turns, fires the first and nobody's there. Ball goes out of play. Runner gets third base. So let's talk about what just happened and there's a few things in this that make me laugh. So let's go back here to the pop-up. So here's the ball. It's hit in the air, shallow center field. So we have the shortstop going back on it here. We've got the second baseman going back on it. We have the outfielders coming in, but they're too far away. Really this play is going to have to be made by the middle infield. Now the second baseman actually has the best angle on this because anytime the ball is hit directly over your head as an infielder, it can be difficult. So the second baseman has the best angle. He's going to go and catch this ball. Now here's where things get ugly. What is supposed to happen in this situation is the pitcher, instead of standing on the mound, I always say if you're standing on the mound, the ball is in play, you're doing something wrong. The pitcher should be going to second base because we need somebody at second base. Just in case this falls in, we can throw the ball to second. The first baseman, what the first baseman does here is he just takes off. He just takes off and he says, no, I'm going to go cover second base. And I don't even think he looked at the pitcher. I'm not sure if he did. It happened too quickly. Like he should be looking right now, but he just said, nope, I'm going to run and cover second. I don't know if I've seen this before. So he goes and cover second. Now the ball is caught. Kemp catches the ball. Now I don't know if one of these guys said to him, one, one, one, one, one, one. We can't really, this, this guy doesn't know what's going on because he can't see. Maybe somebody says one, one, one, because they see the baserunners pretty far off. The baserunner has to get off a little bit here. We see the baserunner because if this ball falls in, he has to get the second base. If it doesn't, he has to get back. And so he catches the ball. He turns and maybe he just turns and says, man, the runner's halfway to the second. I can throw him out at first. He throws the ball to first base, but here's the problem. There is no first baseman because the first baseman is now standing on second because the pitcher didn't cover second. And you can, you can see the first base, but turn right in. But what the hell are you doing? I'm standing over here. There's nobody over there. That's the first thing that made me lie. The second thing is watch Franco right here. He put his hands up and pretends like he's the first baseman, like he's going to catch the ball and the ball goes out of play. First baseman says, uh, I don't know if he realized he made a mistake, but this is A's baseball right now, I guess. So again, to correct all this, pitchers go to second base, don't stand on the mound. And first baseman, I mean, I've never seen this. I don't think this is taught. I've never taught this. I've never been taught this. I don't know why the first baseman would run all this way to second base for no reason. He can just stay here. This guy goes there. Bang. Super simple. And we're done. So that would be my suggestion. And then this really just sums it up. Tony comes sitting there saying, why is my first baseman on second base and not on first base? Cost me an error. What the hell are we doing? Now I'm not a great lip reader, but I'm pretty sure he says, what's he doing on second base? I agree with you, Tony. I don't know what he's doing on second base. So sorry for the error. Hopefully this helps you guys out. If you're ever in this situation again, let me know your thoughts in the comment section below, subscribe to the channel, hit the notification bell, give it a thumbs up, all that good stuff. We'll talk to you later.