I have played and watched baseball since I was five. The other day, I saw something that I had never seen before.

This season, I joined a fantasy baseball league with a few guys I know. This has led to me keeping track of MLB more than I ever have. Nightly, I start the ESPN Game Tracker and monitor the happenings in all the games.

Game tracker is awesome. It allows you to keep up with all the games at once. For a given game, it will show you who's pitching and which player is batting. Pitch-by-pitch, it shows the balls, strikes, and outs. It also shows you in text format, every play that takes place, e.g. "Ken Griffey, Jr. homers to right.", "David Wright steals second.", etc..

Well, like I said, the other night I saw something that I had never before seen. At some point, late in a game, team A was up big. Team B was batting and had runners on the corners, Joe on first and Schmoe on third. The next play says, "Joe advances to second on fielder's indifference."

Fielder's Indifference what the heck is that?!? Come to find out, when you take an extra base1, and the defense does not try to get you out, it is scored as a fielder's indifference. It's a form of fielder's choice. Who knew?

1. back This also applies when a throw comes in from the outfield and the defense allows a runner to score without trying to get them out at the plate.

Labels: entertainment, sports