Bit Players, and Scene Stealers
Courtesy Runners Add Intrigue to High School Baseball

By Preston Williams
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 22, 2006

With the bases loaded, the infield drawn in and the score tied in extra innings, Centreville sophomore Mickey Bozek broke from third on a slow roller to the Robinson pitcher. As Bozek slid into home, the ball glanced off the catcher's chest protector, eliciting a "Safe!" call from the umpire and a parade of grinning Wildcats from the dugout.

Their congratulatory slaps to the batting helmet must have sounded like a postgame fireworks display to the guy underneath it, because for courtesy runner Bozek and others like him, scoring the winning run is akin to a position player blasting a game-ending homer.

"All the jumping around by home plate -- that's when you feel like you're part of the game," Bozek said. "You're not just going out there and running for people."

Bozek, an outfielder-pitcher biding his time behind older Wildcats, batted once this season and played one inning in the outfield. But he was plenty busy as the team's primary courtesy runner, a player who specializes in running the bases as a substitute when his team's catcher or pitcher reaches base.

The initial intent of high school courtesy runners was to speed up the game by allowing the pitcher, free from base running duty, to return to the dugout and take the mound as soon as that half-inning ends, or to give the catcher time to put his gear back on before the next team comes to bat.

But that's not the only tempo change that courtesy runners provide. Stealing a base, moving up on a wild pitch or scoring from first on a ball hit to the gap could make the difference between a win and a loss, and a courtesy runner can provide that edge multiple times during the same game. Unlike a pinch runner, he is allowed to re-enter to run for the same player he ran for originally. And a team is allowed to have two courtesy runners on base if the pitcher and catcher get on.

Ron Tugwell, who coached for more than 25 years at West Springfield, beginning in the mid-1970s, recalls courtesy runners initially being used with only two outs. Not any more.

"It's become an offensive weapon now," said Westfield's Chuck Welch, a coach for more than 20 years in Northern Virginia. "This, to me, is the only free substitution in baseball."

Old Mill Coach Mel Montgomery bumped up senior catcher C.J. Adams into the leadoff spot this season to take advantage of his most reliable contact hitter, and to get junior courtesy runner Naquan Gavin into the game early and often. Gavin scored 15 runs and stole 11 bases in 12 attempts.

"It's like having two guys in one body," Montgomery said.

While at the same time saving wear and tear on the bodies of pitchers and catchers, who can stay fresher.

"A lot of times you're looking for pitchers to go as many innings as possible," said Centreville Coach Jonathan Frohm, whose team was eliminated from the Virginia postseason last week. "If you can take the pressure off them on the base paths, it might give them an extra 10 pitches. That could be the difference between [throwing] five innings and seven innings."

Abolished from the major leagues in 1949, courtesy runners gauge their contributions 90 feet at a time. But just by trotting out of the dugout, squeezing into a helmet and toeing first base -- and hearing his name over the public address system -- a courtesy runner has already distressed the opposition.

The pitcher is aware that the replacement runner must be fast and savvy, otherwise the reserve probably would not be in the game. The leery hurler checks the runner's lead and throws over to first. And again. The catcher fidgets. An errant pickoff throw would be giving away at least one base. A hastened delivery could result in a walk or a poorly placed pitch.

"When you step on that bag, you have the pitcher," said Lake Braddock senior courtesy runner Johnny Arnold, whose team will play for the Virginia AAA Patriot District title today. "If he's focusing all his attention on you, then he can't focus on the batter, and that helps your team out even more."

"You feel it's changing their whole mindset and disrupting them," said Westfield junior Greg Lemmer, who this season turned his impressive courtesy running stint into a job as the Bulldogs' starting right fielder.

The pitcher's fretting can intensify if a courtesy runner causes trouble in his first appearance. Arnold kick-started a 12-run first inning against Annandale this season.

"Say you go in for someone in the first inning and steal a base," Bozek said. "When you come out there again, it's even more [stressful] because they saw that you stole a base and you know what you're doing and you're not just out there [so another player] can get a break."

The most important attributes of a courtesy runner? Speed and smarts? Yes, but perhaps no more important than willingness and patience. "If I wanted to run all the time, I would have joined the track team," a disgruntled courtesy runner once told Old Mill's Montgomery.

A courtesy runner might go home with a sullied uniform that needs to go through multiple wash cycles, or he might leave the field looking like he just stepped out of the team photo.

There's no guarantee he'll leave the dugout, even though he always limbers up and grabs a helmet when the player he would run for is at bat. He could be thrust into the most crucial moment of a game, or he might crack wise with his buddies for two hours.

"When you come in to run in the bottom of the seventh," Lemmer said, "and you could be the one run that could maybe tie the game or put your team ahead, it's the same rush as if you're on deck playing the game."

"I just want to be on base as bad as [the batter] does," said Langley junior Rick Hanna, who started at second base last season on the junior varsity but ended up earning a varsity letter for courtesy running, his role again this season.

Coaches credit their courtesy runners in different ways. Blair Coach John Macdonald awards runs not to junior courtesy runner Dylan Rebois, but to the player for whom he is running. At Langley, Hanna gets the credit, which explains his numbers on the team's Web site -- six at-bats, 19 runs.

Westfield's Welch said his rule for earning a varsity letter is to play in half the games. Not playing half the innings, but appearing in half the games. With that criterion, a regularly used courtesy runner might stand a better chance of lettering than a part-time position player.

"Any way to play on varsity," Hanna said. "It's really fun. It's almost like a new position to play when you can't play in the field."

Some coaches don't value courtesy runners quite as much. Tugwell usually considered his starters to be his best base runners because of their understanding and feel for the game.

"I've seen it a million times -- courtesy runner goes in and he gets picked off," Tugwell said. "All of a sudden you're dealing with somebody who's not paying attention to what's going on in the game. It can work against you as well as help you.

"But if a kid can help you win one game, then it's worth getting that kid in there."

While players such as Hanna and Bozek are working toward one day cracking their teams' starting lineups, courtesy running has been a refuge for Blair's Rebois, the Blazers' starting shortstop last season.

Except for one inning at first base (teammates were detained by late advanced placement testing) and two bunt attempts, Rebois was unable to play in the field or bat this season because of severe tendinitis. If not for courtesy running, he would have been out of baseball entirely.

"It's been pretty difficult going from playing a lot to virtually not at all," said Rebois, who stole 12 bases in 13 attempts. "You won't make any of the showcase teams as a courtesy runner," he added with a laugh.

"But running is still an opportunity to contribute to the team and still get to interact with people. I'm looking a lot more into the specifics of running and . . . thinking through things and situations I didn't even know existed."

Lake Braddock's Arnold, who as a pinch runner scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh in a Patriot District semifinal Friday night, played varsity football and basketball. So one might think that courtesy running would be the least thrilling aspect of his athletic career.

That's not necessarily so. At times, courtesy running is the most liberating thing he has done in a Bruins uniform.

"Once you get on base," Arnold said, "there's nothing else that matters but scoring."