Jordin Griffin committed to play college baseball at LSU instead of college football. His latest stunt sparked a rules debate.
Did he run out of the base path?
Griffin, one of the top high school baseball players in the country, juked a first baseman out of his shoes during a pickle play. However, his feet did not stay on the dirt while he made the evasive move.
Who is Jordan Griffin?
At 17 years and nine months old, Jordan Griffin is a multi-sport athlete at Alfred M. Barbe High School in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He is a standout running back on the gridiron and a five-tool player on the diamond.
Griffin ran for more than 1,400 yards and 28 touchdowns as a junior and holds three scholarship offers from UCLA, Louisiana-Lafayette (or whatever they want to be called these days) and McNeese State to play college football. His highlight tape is legit.
The combine numbers are just as impressive, if not even more so. Griffin recently recorded a time of 4.46 in the 40-yard dash and 4.22 in the shuttle with a broad jump of nine feet, eight inches and a vertical of 33.2 inches.
He’s a freak athlete with a huge decision to make!
Griffin committed to play baseball at LSU as an eighth grader but he might have a higher ceiling in football. It is also expected that he will hear his name called during the first round of the MLB Draft next month. Griffin recorded a maximum velocity of 90 miles per hour from the infield and 93 miles per hour from the outfield. He also generates explosive bat speed from the left side despite his smaller frame and shows mature plate discipline with a high on-base percentage.
Assuming a MLB organization decides to draft him, Griffin must make a decision. He can either choose to go pro in baseball, play baseball at LSU and hope to walk-on to the football team, or re-open his recruitment in search of a school that will let him do both.
Perfect Game grades the rising freshman in college as a 10 out of 10. Not only does Griffin get on base, his ability to play second base, third base and outfield is another major asset for wherever he ultimately ends up, We’ll see. I think it would be hard to turn down a signing bonus greater than $1,000,000 but the money runs deep in Baton Rouge so maybe the Tigers are willing to match a similar number. Lane Kiffin has also been known to encourage two-sport athletes in the past so who knows what will happen!
His nasty juke move sparked a baseball rules controversy.
Jordan Griffin is currently playing for the USA Prime National Baseball team. He recently pulled one of the most insane moves you will ever see.
The 5-foot-10, 190-pound speedster got caught in a rundown between first and second base. Instead of trying to out-run the first baseman, he put on the breaks and hit him with a nasty juke. The first baseman literally fell to his knees. Griffin was safe.
Here’s another look:
Unfortunately, Griffin’s stolen base did not count. The umpire ruled that he ran outside the base path. Did he?
Per the rules as they are written, a runner is automatically out if he deviates more than three feet to either side of a direct, straight line between their starting position and the base they are trying to reach. They are only restricted to a specific base path when a fielder is attempting to tag them out. That is what happened here. The first baseman was trying to tag Griffin out.
The debate stems from the aforementioned running lane. Griffin was ruled out because he deviated beyond the three-foot boundary and, therefore, broke the straight line between the attempted tag and the base. I’m not so sure that he did. It’s a judgement call.