I discovered this in my notes final week. I do not know how lengthy it’s been there. It says: “What number of instances this season has an infielder let the ball go proper between their legs?” I had no thought by any means. I couldn’t recall the final time I’d seen it. In all probability in a spotlight from the 1986 World Sequence.
Baseball is the last word scorekeeping sport, and because of websites like ours, once you ask what number of instances any specific occasion has occurred, the reply is often simple to search out. How typically does a righty hit a house run off a lefty within the prime of the eighth inning with the tying run within the on-deck circle? It took me twice as lengthy to sort that query out because it did to search for the reply: It has occurred 5 instances in every of the final three years. Straightforward. However as far as I do know, no person retains a rely of grounders that go proper by means of the wickets.
Errors get labeled in sure methods. Our leaderboard tracks fielding and throwing errors. The play-by-play notes on Baseball Savant add in missed-catch errors. Different sources differentiate between reached-on-error errors and runner-advanced errors. However that’s about it. As a result of they symbolize arguably probably the most embarrassing approach to commit an error, between-the-legs errors are particular in a human sense, however no person splits them out into their very own column as a result of there’s nothing significantly particular about them in a baseball sense. A minimum of, you wouldn’t assume so initially.
For some time now, Sam Miller has been documenting how a lot tougher it has gotten to be charged with an error. The grade inflation is actual, and it’s one purpose that it’s so exhausting to check protection throughout completely different eras. But when we had been monitoring between-the-legs errors, on their very own, I believe they might have served as a sort of fixed. Even in the present day’s most lenient official scorer can’t overlook a ball that goes proper by means of the wickets. Irrespective of how exhausting it’s hit, regardless of how funky the hop, there’s simply no approach to discuss your self into the concept that the fielder bears no duty for a ball that actually rolls between their legs. Irrespective of the period, that’s by no means been a success. If we had been splitting out errors between the legs over time, then we might have been capable of get a real sense of whether or not fielders have grown roughly sure-handed over time.
That’s a number of preamble to inform you that I didn’t have a handy approach to reply this query. I couldn’t look it up. I couldn’t determine it out by dicing up the numbers. I needed to discover these errors one after the other, which meant hitting the tape exhausting. In accordance with Baseball Savant, batters hit 52,915 groundballs throughout the 2025 season, and 44,065 have been hit to an infielder (together with pitchers and catchers). The infielders made errors on 894 of these groundballs. Because it seems, we really noticed a couple of greater than 894 errors on these performs, as a result of each infrequently, a participant or a workforce makes a couple of error on a single grounder, as Geraldo Perdomo is completely happy to display:
As labeled by Statcast, 500 of these performs concerned fielding errors. That was so far as I may cut up issues out. I watched all 500 of these groundballs to see whether or not or not the ball went by means of the fielder’s legs. After I couldn’t inform from Baseball Savant’s 15-second clip, which occurred so much, I tracked down the play on MLB.TV and watched slow-motion replays till I used to be certain. It took me a couple of days to get by means of all of them, however watching 500 errors in a row taught me so much.
I realized that the nomenclature for the completely different subcategories of errors is so much squishier than I spotted. I assumed I had a fairly good taxonomy in my head. You’ll be able to boot the ball, which is when it clanks off a glove or a physique half. You’ll be able to kick the ball, a subset of booting, which on this case both means you actually kick it together with your foot or that it caroms (kicks) off of you and goes significantly far. You’ll be able to fumble the ball, which implies you get your glove on it and hold it in entrance of you, however can’t totally corral it. You’ll be able to bobble the ball, which implies you glove it however simply can’t get sufficient management over it to truly throw it over to first in time. Lastly, you’ll be able to whiff, which implies you miss the ball completely. That’s what I assumed, anyway. I used to be incorrect.
Just about any of these phrases can be utilized to explain any sort of fielding error. Every one can function a catch-all when the participant catches nothing. Play-by-play announcers usually use their very own go-to verbiage for an error relatively than utilizing language particular to the play. As a result of they’re watching the motion from excessive up within the press field and don’t have the luxurious of replay, many depend on a go-to phrase. Kevin Brown of the Orioles is huge on “kicks it,” whereas Dan Schulman of the Blue Jays likes “it will get beneath the glove of…” They like to remain within the movement, preserving their narration regular relatively than ready to get extra particular. Tom McCarthy of the Phillies, alternatively, isn’t afraid to let the play breathe for a second after which title the actual subspecies of error.
I realized to assume extra deeply about what goes into an error. In case you’ve ever thought-about your self an infielder, you already know that exterior the wildest circumstances, a foul hop is a poor excuse for an error. Your job is to get your self in place to get a very good brief hop or lengthy hop, avoiding the in-between hops that depart you with an unsure estimated trajectory. There are at all times particular circumstances, although. Simply ask poor Will Warren, the one pitcher to earn an error for a ball that went between his legs. Pitchers are often immune from this specific error. If the ball goes between their legs, it’s as a result of it was hit exhausting sufficient that they will’t be anticipated to be able to area it in time. The bar for pitcher fielding is extremely low, and that’s the place it ought to be. It’s absurd that we ask pitchers to place each fiber of their being into throwing a ball 100 mph, after which, lower than a second later, area a ball coming again at them with even better velocity. It’s a marvel they’re able to transferring in any respect after they launch the pitch. We must always give them somewhat nap each time they exceed 95 mph as a substitute of sending line drives again at their fragile our bodies.
Warren’s error got here with particular circumstances. He acquired Jordan Westburg to chase a sinker that ran manner inside. Westburg managed to make weak contact, breaking his bat and sending a lethal sliver straight out towards Warren on the mound. The ball adopted the bat, and after one delicate hop, the subsequent shot beneath Warren’s glove due to Rafael Nadal forehand ranges of topspin. It was brutal, and Warren pretty collapsed in anguish:
After watching 500 fielding errors, I even have a newfound appreciation for the way in which a baseball glove works. It operates a bit like a funnel. In case you hold your arms delicate, angle your glove correctly, and let the ball hit it inside a couple of inches of middle, the ball will discover its approach to the pocket. But when the hop is simply an inch or two wider than you anticipate, it’ll hit the thumb and ricochet. If it’s an inch or two increased, it’ll hit clank off the heel or roll proper up your arm. If it’s an inch or two decrease, it should bounce out and in of the net and fall proper at your ft. These are close to misses, small miscalculations, they usually can occur for all types of causes. Perhaps it’s a troublesome play and the fielder is on the transfer. Perhaps the velocity of the runner or the sport state of affairs forces them to cost a ball they might usually wait again on. Perhaps it’s only a funky hop as a result of the ball has loopy spin or it hits the sting of the grass or a sprinkler head. If any of these issues occurs, the ball will bounce off the fielder. I noticed all of these outcomes way more typically than I noticed balls undergo the legs.
It’s simply plain uncommon for a significant league defender to whiff that badly on a ball hit immediately at them. When sabermetricians launched vary stats a couple of many years in the past, we realized you’d relatively have a participant with nice vary, even when they’re a bit extra error-prone. Errors look ugly, however they’re no extra damaging than balls that sneak by means of the infield and go down as base hits. Elly De La Cruz can lead the league in errors and stick at brief as a result of the superior numbers say his vary and his arm are fairly shut to creating up for his miscues. Even so, at a time when slick glovework is arguably much less valued than it’s ever been, there’s nonetheless no such factor as knowledgeable baseball participant who can’t cease a grounder hit immediately at them.
So right here’s how uncommon that play is. Out of the five hundred fielding errors on groundballs, simply 50 handed between the fielder’s legs. Of these 50, I’d classify 9 as freak performs the place the ball simply occurred to cross between the fielder’s legs. 5 fielders have been operating exhausting to both their glove aspect or backhand aspect, and after they couldn’t provide you with the hop, the ball one way or the other weaved by means of their churning legs like a hole-in-one on the windmill gap at a mini golf course. Two fielders had the ball bounce off the tip of their glove and settle at their ft, then managed to actually kick the ball again and thru their legs. Even a pitcher and a catcher acquired concerned within the motion, overrunning weak toppers and watching helplessly as they trickled between their legs:
Like I mentioned, these have been all freak performs, incidentals. They have been nothing just like the archetype of a routine grounder that goes proper by means of the wickets. That occurred simply 41 instances all season. That’s as soon as each 59 video games. In different phrases, over the course of the season, the typical baseball fan who watches a couple of video games per week ought to anticipate to see a ball go proper by means of the wickets as soon as, in the event that they’re fortunate. These performs symbolize simply 1.7% of all errors and 0.025% of all plate appearances. It’s extremely uncommon for a ball to roll proper by means of an infielder’s legs.
Alternatively, these performs symbolize an enormous proportion of the nation’s Strategic Unhappy Infielder Closeup Reserve. Administrators know that gamers who let the ball trickle between their legs will carry some real emotion to the published, so the digicam at all times finds them. As with every error, we get to see gamers trying down at their gloves as if to ask why they determined to go on strike:
We get to see gamers trying again on the scoreboard and ready resignedly for the massive E to flash on the display:
We get some compulsory pictures of basic human distress, which everyone loves:
And lastly, courtesy of Angels’ infielder Kevin Newman, we get some good old school profanity:
Though these performs have been exceedingly uncommon in 2025, you could possibly enhance your probabilities of seeing one in a couple of methods. Anybody who occurred to tune into the previous couple of innings of the Rays-Crimson Sox sport on September 20 acquired to look at Junior Caminero straddle two grounders in a row. The calls on the house broadcast have been almost similar, so it’s significantly enjoyable once you stack them on prime of one another:
The opposite huge manner to make sure that you noticed a bunch of those performs was to be a fan of the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds led all of baseball by letting six grounders go between their pink legs, twice as many as another workforce. (Six groups didn’t do it as soon as: the Astros, Brewers, Cubs, Padres, Rangers, and Crimson Sox.) Coming into this train, the participant I used to be most excited to look at was Elly De La Cruz. That’s certainly not an uncommon state of affairs. He’s at all times thrilling to look at. However on this case, De La Cruz struck me as a number one candidate for this form of error, not simply because he makes so many errors, however as a result of he’s acquired such huge lengthy legs. Each participant units their ft extensive after they go all the way down to area a grounder, however that width is relative to their total measurement. He doth bestride the slender world Colossus, and no shortstop in baseball has a much bigger 5 gap for the ball to sneak by means of. With a lot actual property to cowl, I figured De La Cruz needed to let extra balls beneath the bridge. I used to be proper. He led all of baseball with three between-the-legs errors, greater than each different total workforce besides the Rays and the Royals. Gavin Lux, Spencer Steer, and Matt McLain additionally chipped in to present the Reds their commanding lead.
Earlier than you assume that solely error-prone gamers let the ball roll between their legs, it’s best to know that seven completely different Gold Glovers have been responsible of this specific crime: Maikel Garcia, Bobby Witt Jr., Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Brendan Donovan, J.P. Crawford, Dylan Moore, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And we must always in all probability rely Hyeseong Kim, who received 4 Golden Gloves within the KBO. In different phrases, almost one in 5 of those grounders rolled by means of the legs of a Gold Glover! All of that is to say that regardless of how good protection will get, between-the-legs errors will at all times be with us. We’d as effectively begin monitoring them now. With out additional ado, please get pleasure from all 41 of them:
