What the hell was that?

I've never understood the appeal of, nor the need for, "reality TV," because we already have it. A sporting event is live, improvised, unscripted, contains some interesting dialogue (usually too colourful for American TV, of course) and wholly unpredictable. No two games are ever quite the same and, even though you may think you know how it will turn out (and there is a whole complicated infrastructure – legal and otherwise – to allow you to wager on how certain you are), you never really do know quite what you're going to get. And there are times you see something on the field or the court or the ice that you've never seen before.

Or that anyone has seen before. Like this mess on the basepaths.

Uh ... what the hell was that?

I've had to explain this play now several times, and basically it goes like this: Segura and Braun wind up on 2nd at the same time. Segura is entitled to 2nd, because he had started there and it wasn't a force play (he didn't have to run in this situation, even though he made the mess by getting picked off), so when the Cubs fielder tags out Braun, Braun is out. It's as if Braun's standing in the middle of the basepath or somewhere in centerfield or something. Doesn't matter that he's standing on the 2nd base bag. So Braun is out, but Segura didn't know what was up, and thought he was out so he started trotting off towards the Brewers dugout, which is on the 1st base side of the field. It's only when the Milwaukee coach points out that he's not out that Segura scampers back to the sanctuary of 1st base, having gone legally backwards. Yes, that's actually legal in this situation. Rule 7.08 (i) allows a runner to run bases in reverse order unless it's "for purpose of confusing the defense or making a travesty" of gam. Segura wasn't doing either of that. He just spazzed and didn't know the rule. (And a case could be made that the Cubs are confused and a travesty regardless.)

This whole situation is pretty ridiculous, but it could've been even weirder: suppose Segura slides back into the 2nd base bag and Braun is standing there and the Cubs tag him but not Braun when they're both on the bag, at which point Segura trots off towards the 1st base dugout again. Then what would've happened? Well, believe it or not, Braun would still be out, because he technically would've passed Segura on the basepaths. Basically, Braun gets hosed in this play no matter what, but he was the MVP two years ago so he can live with the indignity.

Incompetence is often the mother of invention, of course, as bad teams seemingly invent ways to lose. And baseball has more weird stuff than any other sport. You can go back and rewrite the rulebook every year, and still situations come up regularly which no umpire really knows what to do with. I've seen the ball roll under a base. I've seen mammoth home runs become outs, and routine pop-ups becomes doubles, because the ball caromed off one of the assorted speakers hanging from the roof of the Kingdome. I remember the Astros losing a playoff game, in part, because they only got three outs in an inning instead of four.

And now I've seen a guy steal 1st base.

Segura wasn't credited with stealing 1st base in the stats, which is just as well, since the SABR statisticians say there is no way to key into the database the act of a baserunner going backwards on the bases. Ha ha, you smartypants stat nerds! The baseball gods have found a way to flummox you yet! We'll just invent new plays you've never seen and don't know how to code! Ha ha!

And it was oddly appropriate Segura got thrown out stealing 2nd the second time – after all, it sort of looks like he's off the bag when he gets tagged and the umpire misses it. It's maybe the strangest thing I've ever seen in baseball, although someone directed me to this gem from Lloyd Moseby, for which there are no words.