I discovered this in my notes final week. I don’t know how lengthy it’s been there. It says: “What number of occasions this season has an infielder let the ball go proper between their legs?” I had no concept in anyway. I couldn’t recall the final time I’d seen it. In all probability in a spotlight from the 1986 World Collection.
Baseball is the last word scorekeeping sport, and due to websites like ours, if you ask what number of occasions any explicit occasion has occurred, the reply is normally simple to seek out. How typically does a righty hit a house run off a lefty within the high 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 occasions in every of the final three years. Straightforward. However as far as I do know, no person retains a depend of grounders that go proper by way of the wickets.
Errors get categorised 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 signify 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. No less than, you wouldn’t suppose so initially.
For some time now, Sam Miller has been documenting how a lot more durable it has gotten to be charged with an error. The grade inflation is actual, and it’s one purpose that it’s so arduous to match protection throughout completely different eras. But when we had been monitoring between-the-legs errors, on their very own, I feel they may have served as a sort of fixed. Even at this time’s most lenient official scorer can’t overlook a ball that goes proper by way of the wickets. Irrespective of how arduous it’s hit, regardless of how funky the hop, there’s simply no approach to discuss your self into the concept 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’d have been capable of get a real sense of whether or not fielders have grown kind of sure-handed over time.
That’s plenty of preamble to let you know 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 arduous. In line with Baseball Savant, batters hit 52,915 groundballs in the course of the 2025 season, and 44,065 had been hit to an infielder (together with pitchers and catchers). The infielders made errors on 894 of these groundballs. Because it seems, we truly noticed just a few greater than 894 errors on these performs, as a result of each occasionally, a participant or a crew makes a couple of error on a single grounder, as Geraldo Perdomo is completely happy to exhibit:
As categorised by Statcast, 500 of these performs concerned fielding errors. That was so far as I might break up issues out. I watched all 500 of these groundballs to see whether or not or not the ball went by way of the fielder’s legs. After I couldn’t inform from Baseball Savant’s 15-second clip, which occurred quite a bit, I tracked down the play on MLB.TV and watched slow-motion replays till I used to be certain. It took me just a few days to get by way of all of them, however watching 500 errors in a row taught me quite a bit.
I discovered that the nomenclature for the completely different subcategories of errors is quite a bit 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 suggests you get your glove on it and preserve it in entrance of you, however can’t totally corral it. You’ll be able to bobble the ball, which suggests you glove it however simply can’t get sufficient management over it to truly throw it over to first in time. Lastly, you may whiff, which suggests you miss the ball solely. That’s what I assumed, anyway. I used to be fallacious.
Just about any of these phrases can be utilized to explain any sort of fielding error. Each can function a catch-all when the participant catches nothing. Play-by-play announcers typically use their very own go-to verbiage for an error fairly 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 posh 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 underneath the glove of…” They like to remain within the movement, preserving their narration regular fairly than ready to get extra particular. Tom McCarthy of the Phillies, then again, isn’t afraid to let the play breathe for a second after which identify the actual subspecies of error.
I discovered to suppose extra deeply about what goes into an error. If you happen to’ve ever thought-about your self an infielder, that exterior the wildest circumstances, a nasty hop is a poor excuse for an error. Your job is to get your self in place to get a great 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 normally immune from this explicit error. If the ball goes between their legs, it’s as a result of it was hit arduous sufficient that they will’t be anticipated to be able to subject 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, subject a ball coming again at them with even larger velocity. It’s a surprise they’re able to shifting in any respect after they launch the pitch. We must always give them just a little nap each time they exceed 95 mph as an alternative of sending line drives again at their fragile our bodies.
Warren’s error got here with particular circumstances. He obtained Jordan Westburg to chase a sinker that ran means 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 mushy hop, the subsequent shot beneath Warren’s glove because of 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. If you happen to preserve your palms mushy, angle your glove correctly, and let the ball hit it inside just a few inches of heart, the ball will discover its approach to the pocket. But when the hop is simply an inch or two wider than you count on, it’ll hit the thumb and ricochet. If it’s an inch or two greater, it’ll hit clank off the heel or roll proper up your arm. If it’s an inch or two decrease, it is going to bounce out and in of the net and fall proper at your ft. These are close to misses, small miscalculations, and so they can occur for all kinds of causes. Perhaps it’s a troublesome play and the fielder is on the transfer. Perhaps the pace of the runner or the sport scenario forces them to cost a ball they’d 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 straight at them. When sabermetricians launched vary stats just a few a long time in the past, we discovered you’d fairly 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 way 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 straight 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 go between the fielder’s legs. 5 fielders had been operating arduous to both their glove aspect or backhand aspect, and after they couldn’t give you the hop, the ball by some means weaved by way 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 obtained concerned within the motion, overrunning weak toppers and watching helplessly as they trickled between their legs:
Like I mentioned, these had been all freak performs, incidentals. They had been nothing just like the archetype of a routine grounder that goes proper by way of the wickets. That occurred simply 41 occasions 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 just a few video games every week ought to count on to see a ball go proper by way of the wickets as soon as, in the event that they’re fortunate. These performs signify simply 1.7% of all errors and 0.025% of all plate appearances. It’s extremely uncommon for a ball to roll proper by way of an infielder’s legs.
Then again, these performs signify 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 all error, we get to see gamers wanting down at their gloves as if to ask why they determined to go on strike:
We get to see gamers wanting again on the scoreboard and ready resignedly for the large E to flash on the display screen:
We get some compulsory photographs 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 had been exceedingly uncommon in 2025, you may improve your probabilities of seeing one in just a few methods. Anybody who occurred to tune into the previous couple of innings of the Rays-Crimson Sox recreation on September 20 obtained to look at Junior Caminero straddle two grounders in a row. The calls on the house broadcast had been practically an identical, so it’s significantly enjoyable if you stack them on high of one another:
The opposite huge means 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 purple legs, twice as many as every other crew. (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 not at all 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 type of error, not simply because he makes so many errors, however as a result of he’s obtained such huge lengthy legs. Each participant units their ft vast after they go all the way down to subject a grounder, however that width is relative to their general dimension. He doth bestride the slender world Colossus, and no shortstop in baseball has a much bigger 5 gap for the ball to sneak by way of. With a lot actual property to cowl, I figured De La Cruz needed to let extra balls underneath the bridge. I used to be proper. He led all of baseball with three between-the-legs errors, greater than each different complete crew besides the Rays and the Royals. Gavin Lux, Spencer Steer, and Matt McLain additionally chipped in to provide the Reds their commanding lead.
Earlier than you assume that solely error-prone gamers let the ball roll between their legs, you need to know that seven completely different Gold Glovers had been responsible of this explicit crime: Maikel Garcia, Bobby Witt Jr., Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Brendan Donovan, J.P. Crawford, Dylan Moore, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And we should always in all probability depend Hyeseong Kim, who gained 4 Golden Gloves within the KBO. In different phrases, practically one in 5 of those grounders rolled by way 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: