Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic FDK: Stealing Second (1/1) -- Summer Ficathon Challenge

Comments here please!

Hi Mouse,

Very cute.

Liked the byplay with Ralph a lot.

Oh god, you don't know how much I needed that belly laugh today after hearing the news about the DCnU. I miss this so much.

Cute!

A new way of revealing the secret! Very funny and well done.

And here I thought the ball was going to do one of two other things: a) hit Ralph (come on, he deserved it), thus allowing Clark to steal second (and home run) later on. OR b) Clark turns and looks at Lois with his sheepish expression and she says, while looking at him like he's a lunkhead, "Run!" like nothing's wrong.

I wasn't expecting the reveal. Great job, Mouse! Can you have the ball circumvent the Earth and hit Ralph?

Lois's character was spot on!

Yes, I was expecting b, too. However, Clark's final line is totally epic. (And I still expected Lois to answer, "Only if you start running, you fool!")

Oh, Mousie!! That was super cute! Poor Clark, but at least Ralph will live another day because Lois' anger has been transferred! lol

Ah. Baseball?

Michael

PS: There's an "FDK: " missing in the topic

You know, that's the line that's popped up in my mind, too. I just forgot about it while typing.

Do you own any of this?

Clark Junior at Little League? Daily Planet game?

Ah! Of course, it would be Ralph.

</me knows nothing about sports>

He'll be flaoting above the couch tonight, huh?



Good thing Clark has a ton of self control. Otherwise - ashes to ashes and all of that.

Hey! That's what I said!



What a great piece of fun! Poor Clark. He has some 'splainin' to do!

<agrees whole heartedly with Virginia>

Wow! Lots of comments! I don't have enough time to respond, but let me just say they are appreciated.

I did actually consider having Lois telling him to run instead of being mad at him, but then I figured the base thing wouldn't work in as well.

Michael: Thank you for the reminder. I fixed it. Also, I didn't think about the baseball references as a possible point of confusion. My apologies. To clarify... in baseball, when someone hits the ball, they have to try and run around a series of four bases. 'Stealing second' refers to a player who has already hit the ball and is waiting on a base for the player 'at bat' to hit the ball. To steal a base, the runner on base runs *after* the ball is thrown but *before* the hitter hits it. So the runner can potentially get farther even if the hitter swings and misses. The spitting in baseball you're referring to is the nasty habit of all-ball-players-chew-tobacco.

(^ my family gets really into sports and I used to be a bit of a tomboy)

And hitting Ralph would've been a great idea. For Lois, maybe. Not Clark.

They never really explain the details when referencing it on TV shows.

Now *there’s* an explanation. I did a google search, but the bit about running before the batter hits was never touched on really. Isn’t that against the rules? And why is it allowed and officially tracked, then?

Michael

Yeah. The internet can get you some crazy long drawn out stuff. :rolleyes: Nope, it's not against the rules (though it's not technically fair). As long as the runner makes it to the next base safely, it can count. If he doesn't make it, then he's out.

Thanks

Michael

Of course it's fair! It's within the rules of the game. The object is to advance from batting at home plate to first base, then second base, then third base, and finally home again without being tagged out by the other team or forced out. Stealing a base is a perfectly acceptable method of advancing that much closer to scoring. In fact, one of the most exciting plays in baseball (which is, admittedly, exciting only in brief spurts) is a runner on third stealing home.

(A force out occurs when a runner does not have an unoccupied base behind him and the ball is put into play so that the batter can advance to first - not a ball hit in the air and caught - and the defensive player holding the ball touches the base to which the runner is advancing before the runner does.)

The only problem with Ralph leaving the base early would be in slow-pitch softball. In that version of the game, the ball is tossed so softly by the pitcher to the catcher that someone who limps when he or she runs could steal second. But it looks and sounds like they weren't playing softball at all.

If Clark went to college on a football scholarship and didn't kill anyone playing a collision sport (basketball is a contact sport, football is a collision sport), then why does he think he has to act like a hopeless idiot on the diamond? He doesn't smash every coffee mug he picks up, so why would he send a baseball into orbit just because he hit it? I'm not sure the bat OR the ball would survive that impact, unless Clark projected his aura around them when he swung.

Apart from that, I thought Lois' attitude toward Ralph was understandable, if a little over the top for a company game. Maybe there's a little back story there where Ralph accused Lois of getting too much Superman help with her stories lately? Or Ralph making cracks about how much the Mad Dog has mellowed since she married?

But her attitude toward Clark was puzzling. No sex unless he took her side against Ralph? Granted, Ralph isn't the easiest guy to like (amazing how much mileage we get out of a character who had so little screen time), but there's no kung-fu fighting in baseball (use Tom Hanks voice)! And she's mad because he wouldn't let her clobber Ralph? Not to mention her look after Clark hit the winning walk-off grand slam. Her team won, she beat Ralph, so why isn't she happy with her husband?

This was a cute story and I really did like the baseball imagery. Thanks for the ride.

A true story: A minor league radio announcer once described a fly ball pursued by a right fielder in this way. "He's going back - back - he's on the warning track - his head hit the wall! Now it's bouncing back toward the infield! The center fielder picks it up and throws it to second!"

I guess baseball can be pretty violent after all.

The greatest moments happen in minor league!