136 Slides (2/2)

”Of course.” Noah snorted. ”The best fielder always plays shortstop. Do you know why?” I shook my head, no. ”It's because most balls hit in to play will go to the shortstop. Just look at our scorecards from the weekend. I definitely recorded the most outs compared to the other fielders.”

”I remember.” I nodded in agreement. ”You're very agile.” I thought about all his diving stops and grabs.

”Duh. I have to be. All shortstops have to be. It's a necessity. You should work on your agility too.” He picked at his lunch. He pointed his carrot at me. ”You're too flat-footed when it comes to defense. We should work on that.” His eyes widen and he dropped the carrot. ”And running the bases. And go over the hand signals. And anything else that isn't hitting.”

I shrugged. Sure.

Noah groaned. ”Tomorrow's the game. Zeke and the coaches will be mad that I didn't teach you all the signs before the game. Again.” He sighed. ”And you still don't know how to slide.”

I wiggled my nose. ”I learned how to slide this past weekend.”

Noah outright laughed. ”Jake, that can't be considered sliding. At all. More like tripping and falling onto the base. And eating dirt. There's multiple types of slides you need to master for different situations.”

This time it was my turn to sigh. ”How many?”

”There are four main ones: feet first, head first, pop up slide, and a hook slide. Unlike your go-to head first slide, the feet first slide is the safest and most common. Head first slides are risky and are proven that they slow you down. You should really only use it when the other team throws a high ball on a tag play.” He took out a cookie to eat. ”Pop up slides should be used on all delay steals and on slides where the base runner sees the ball gets away from the defender and he has a chance to advance to another base. It's the quickest slide, but you have to be careful not to interfere with the ball or play, otherwise you could be called automatically out.”

I couldn't imagine doing a pop up slide ever. I haven't even tried sliding feet first, I couldn't imagine popping up to try for an extra base. I'm not even that fast. ”A hook slide?”

Noah replied. ”This slide really isn't used as much any more like it was in the past, but it can be an effective slide when going to one side of the base when a throw is on the other side. It works the best at 3rd base. Basically, the base runner bends out his left leg similar to a hurdler stretch position. He has his other leg extended out and just touches the base with the left leg away from a throw to the other side of the base. It's too complicated for you.”

No kidding. We spent the rest of the lunch break talking about the slides and whether I could even learn them. Noah said that there were drills you could practice, but nothing beats like a real game situation.