The Modern Day TOOTBLAN

During the course of the 2012 season, TOOTBLAN is a term you will hear Stacie and I say quite a bit. You will especially hear us use this when we start game capping. What is the TOOTBLAN? The TOOTBLAN is something that has been around since the beginning of Baseball but never officially recorded. TOOTBLAN stands for Thrown Out On The Bases Like A Nincompoop. What does this mean exactly? Well…..

A TOOTBLAN is a play where a player gets thrown out on the bases, either trying to score or trying to advance a base when that player has absolutely no business doing so. When a player is thrown out and you think to yourself….”Man what is that guy thinking? he was out by ten feet!”  That is a TOOTBLAN. The TOOTBLAN was originally coined by tony jewell of wrigleyville23.com

This term was created for the Father of the modern day TOOTBLAN. This player who inspired Mr. Jewell to create the term TOOTBLAN was none other than former Dodger second baseman Ryan “TOOTBLAN” Theriot. On July 31 of 2010 Ryan Theriot was traded to the Dodgers from the Cubs for Blake DeWitt. Mr. Jewell coined the phrase for Theriot, whom him and many other Cubs fans consider to be the worst base runner in the major leagues. When Theriot was dealt to the Dodgers he already had 19 confirmed TOOTBLANS. Only three days with the Dodgers Theriot committed his first TOOTBLAN in blue. We suffered through two months of Theriot’s complete and total uselessness at the plate. During one 30 game stretch he only had two extra base hits, or something like that. An opposite field singles hitter with no power, Theriot uselessly grounded out or whiffed. Even when he did get on base, he would TOOTBLAN away the inning 30-40% of the time nullifying most of his singles anyways.

The modern day TOOTBLAN is more subjective, as not all outs on the base paths are TOOTBLANS. Just because a player is picked off a base or thrown out trying to steal, it doesn’t mean it’s a TOOTBLAN. What constitutes a TOOTBLAN is a reckless play. A play where the player is thrown out by a mile. Theriot’s first TOOTBLAN as a Dodger was when he tried to score form third base on a routine grounder to short. Theriot was thrown out by about a distance of me to you. That’s a TOOTBLAN. Theriot has gone on to commit many more TOOTBLANS. I’m not sure what his official count is, as he is still active, but last year while with the Cardinals he played a series at Dodger Stadium and was thrown out on the bases foolishly at least two or three times. So I’m going to assume his count is at least up to thirty by now.

We now have a twitter page just for keeping track of TOOTBLANS. TOOTBLAN page Every time there is a TOOTBLAN anywhere in major league game, a tweet goes up on this page. Check it out!

So there you have it. Now you are informed, unless you already knew. Whenever you are watching a Major League game, and you see a runner attempt to score from third base on a little dribbler, when you know he will be thrown out by a mile…………TOOTBLANS happen all the time all throughout the majors.

Anytime a player attempts to advance from second to third on a ground ball hit in front of him with nobody at first base, and less than two outs…….

Anytime a player forgets the squeeze sign and is hung out to dry in between third base and home plate………

Anytime a player is thrown out on the bases foolishly…….man I wish I had a bell, a high pitched bell to ring every time it happened, so we know to officially score it as a TOOTLBAN.

So be on the lookout during the 2012 season guys, because you just never know….you just might……see a TOOTBLAN!