Nobody steals home plate straight-up anymore. It’s just math. The baserunner has to scamper 90 feet from third before the pitcher — who is much more likely to throw the ball from the stretch or with a more compact delivery than players used to in the early half of the 20th century — can throw the ball 90+ miles per hour to the catcher 60 feet 6 inches away. Add all that up and it just seems like a hopeless scenario that only makes sense in an extreme situation when a pitcher is fast-asleep on the mound or when the base runner is insanely reckless or confident in his foot-speed.
If you’re Louisville Cardinals right fielder Corey Ray, though, you can be excused for having a little confidence. As you can see in the above video, Ray bolted from third to beat the throw from Wake Forest righty Will Craig, winning the game on Saturday after ball dribbled away from catcher Zach Pizza. What you’re not seeing in that video is the sheer tonnage of both Ray and the Cardinals’ dominance on the basepaths against Demon Deacons. That steal of home was Ray’s fourth steal of the day after playing the whole way through both halves of a double header that yielded 11 total steals by the Cardinals. With that in mind, I don’t know if it’s more impressive that he stole home or that he was able to have the energy to jump up and celebrate with his teammates afterwards.
Source: GoCardsGo