SLIDING

[LikeMike]

When I played everyone slid into third feet first. Then along came Pete Rose and now most all do it head first.

You take a chance of hurting a hand (hard to hold the bat) or getting a glove in the face (hard to eat breakfast).

Why do most players slide head first? Is there any advantage?

 

[blonthang]

Never played the game, but I can think of two reasons, at least, for sliding with leading hands instead of feet:

1) as the base runner is approaching the bag full speed, to get the feet out in front of the body to make contact with the bag the body starts to slow down because the feet come off the ground and the legs are no longer pushing the runner's body forwards. With hands first the legs are still propelling the body, even as the runner begins his rotation down to slide, so I'm guessing the baserunner approaches the bag a bit faster with hands first rather than feet first

2) the hands and arms are more adept at "reaching" around the infielder at the last second as compared to the feet and lower legs, just a bit quicker since the arms are shorter than legs and most people have better skills with hands/arms than feet/legs. Similarly, I'm guessing it's a bit easier to "hug" the bag with the arms/hands to stay on as compared to feet which might tend to bounce off the bag leading to a tag-out after already reaching the bag safely

Oh, and with head first, you can always reach over and bite the fielder's ankle.

 

[BevoBeef]

I think the artificial turf has a lot to do with this. When the field is wet, runners slide a long way because
there is no dirt around the base and there is no friction to slow them down as much. In the first year of
the new turf, you saw runners sliding past the bag even though they tried to catch hold of the bag as they
went past. They would be tagged out after they passed the base. The head first slide offers a better opportunity
to catch the bag and stop their momentum.

Also, with no slowing in their momentum on wet turf, you would tend to turn an ankle much easier if you hit
the bag feet first.

 

[wherzwaldo]

In reply to:

---

---

 

[Son of a Son]

I was always under the belief that a head-first slide was "faster" into the bag and that a feet-fiirst "pop" slide was used in situations where you may need to get moving again, ie hit and run, error, etc. However, I have no scientific data to support that belief.

 

[LikeMike]

SEE: Josh Hamilton. The fool should learn to slide feet first.