The McCovey Shift (

Описание: Frequent defensive shifting only began in recent years with teams like the Tampa Bay Rays using the technique as standard practice. But most fans know of the famous Ted Williams shift by Lou Boudreau and the Cleveland Indians in the 1940s and the existence of occasional shifting in the past.

This clip from a regular season Cubs-Giants game in 1972 suggests perhaps defensive shifting was marginally more common in the past than some remember. The Cubs shift here on the slumping Willie McCovey (batting .194) while Tony Kubek intriguingly suggests that some teams put four men in the outfield against the Giants slugger. A Wikipedia entry on defensive shifting mentions that McCovey once bunted on a shift, scoring Willie Mays from first and taking a double himself. There has been speculation that in future years, this ploy will eradicate shifting in today's game as well.

We also see Candlestick's famed wind blow a popup back into play fooling Randy Hundley. The Park (which welcomed just over 5,000 fans that day) was using artificial surface by 1972 and would not return to natural grass until 1979. It has been enclosed in 1971 but as we see here the wind above the stadium was fearsome.

Also interesting is the moment in which Ferguson Jenkins has the baseball, rather casually, examined by the third base umpire for a foreign substance. This was requested by opposing teams with some frequency in this era. Try that today and the controversy will likely land the requesting manager on that day's lead Sportscenter story.

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Video copyright Major League Baseball