The Day the Batboy Almost Had a Home Run

Do you have what it takes to hit a home run? It's easier than you think, provided you're in the right spot at the right time. A batboy for the White Sox almost found that out on Wednesday. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

After hitting a three-run home run in the first inning against Milwaukee, Eduardo Perez pulled up lame going around first base with what later was called a strained right calf.

Paul Konerko motioned for the batboy to run for Perez, but as he took off down the first-base line, Sox first-base coach Harold Baines road-blocked the youngster. Finally, [shortstop Andy] Gonzalez came in and ran for Perez, getting credit for the run scored.

''I saw that,'' Perez said of the batboy. ''I was like, 'You've got to be kidding me. He's going to get credit for the home run.'''

Okay, so the batboy didn't technically hit the home run, but Perez is correct in noting that he would have been credited as such in the box score in he ran the bases -- you can't hit a home run without collecting a run scored, can you?

I'm sure some of you are wondering why Konerko even thought the batboy would be allowed to run, so it's worth noting this was a "B" game -- one of those fun quirks of spring training in which teams play games where normal rules don't necessarily apply. Need a guy to get extra at-bats? Let him lead-off every inning. Trying to protect a pitcher's arm? End the inning with a pitch count instead of waiting for three outs. And people wonder why no one takes spring training stats seriously ...

In any case, I feel bad for the batboy -- that home run belonged to him just as much as it did any else aside from Perez, so why not give him a moment in the sun? That's something he'd be telling his buddies for the rest of his life, but Baines had to be a hard-ass about it. Thanks for nothing, Harold.