Do you know what the "ballplayer's play" is?

[trackfan]

This refers to baseball. The reason I ask is that this is a bit of terminology that - or so I assumed - every baseball fan would be familiar with. However, Google had NO readily available correct answer. What's up with that? I've found amazingly esoteric and impossibly obscure things returning tens, scores, and hundreds of results on Google; yet, nothing for the ballplayer's play! (or ballplayers play or ballplayers' play). What gives?

[SoDesuKa]

1. Never Heard of It

I've soaked up a lot of baseball jargon from watching televised games over the years, but I never heard of "ballplayers play".

A "long cool drink of water" is a tall, skinny guy. A "can of corn" is a high flyball to the outfield, all the fielder has to do is wait for it. And "the wheelhouse" is the middle of the strikezone where the hitter can drive the ball with power.

[trackfan]

5. If I remember correctly - I was googling to confirm - it's this situation:

It's when a right-handed hitter comes up with a runner on second and none (or one?) out, and "goes the other way" with a ground ball to the right side, thus advancing the runner to third - sort of a non-credited sacrifice.

[Mojambo]

11. Ah. Hitting behind the runner. n/t

[Richardo]

2. Fielder's choice?

That's as close as I can get to 'ballplayer's play', which I too have never heard before.

[trackfan]

6. See my response to the first post the first post for an explanation.

[Mojambo]

3. Not familiar with it. n/t

[trackfan]

7. See my response to the first post the first post for an explanation.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

4. New one to me. Where'd you pick it up?

[trackfan]

8. See my response to the first post the first post for an explanation.

It must have been from one or more of the announcers here in L.A.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

9. interesting. found this:

06 « October « 2009 « The Blue Duck
Oct 6, 2009 – It was a “ballplayer's” play. So, Punto and the Twins won this one. They earned the right to celebrate for ten minutes, hop on a flight, ...

link:
http://blueducksports.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/metrodome-madness-part-2/


and this:
Magic number down to five… « Inside the Dodgers
insidethedodgers.mlblogs.com/2008/.../magic-number-down-to-five... - Cached
Sep 21, 2008 – He made the ballplayer's play. Let's say he stays on first and they pitch to Manny who singles. Then everyone would be bitching that he ...

link:
http://insidethedodgers.mlblogs.com/2008/09/21/magic-number-down-to-five/

[The Big Vetolski]

10. The most advanced baseball I ever played was intramural stuff in

college, and I did hear the expression there used when talking about a sacrifice of any kind to advance a runner. Don't know if it means different things at different levels or in different places, though.