Baseball Infield: Fielding A Slow Roller - Video Transcript
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Coach Nick Giaquinto: OK, one of the most exciting plays in baseball is the slow roller, It takes a lot of skill for an infielder to execute this play, and it's usually a bang-bang play at first base. Now, there are a couple of techniques that we use, depending on where the ball is rolled. Occasionally, the infielder will field it outside of his foot, sometimes inside of his foot. Now, if it's really going to be a bang-bang play, and it has to be done even quicker, the infielder will use his bare hand – which takes a lot of practice and a lot of skill.
Let's see Pat execute the slow roller. OK, here we go Pat. OK, Pat took that one inside his foot; now he'll take a different angle, and it will be outside. Let's try another one of those, Pat, that was pretty good. If he can, he'd want to take more of a banana route. Let's try a banana route, here, Pat – where he's getting outside the ball, coming through. If you have time, that's the preferred approach, but a lot of times you don't have that time.
Now, we'll do the bare hand play. One more, Pat, bare hand play. So, that's a key play in baseball. It's a very exciting play; it's always a bang-bang play at first base. If executed properly, it's just a beautiful thing to watch.


