Little League homer

A Little League homer is a play on which a player gets to circle the bases as the result of one or more errors from the defensive team. The term is specifically used when it is a normally harmless ground ball that gets misplayed thus.

The term comes from the fact that players in Little League do not normally have much power and the only way they can hope to hit a home run is to hit a ground ball that receives a lot of unintentional assistance from opposite fielders, such as the ball rolling under a player's glove or wild throws being made, allowing the batter to take one extra base after another until he eventually scores on the play. Of course, major leaguers are expected not to make a series of ridiculous errors on a routinely hit ball, but it does happen from time to time, to the delight of those who assemble blooper reels.

Further Reading

• Chuck Hildebrandt: "'Little League Home Runs' in MLB History - The Denouement", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Vol. 46, Nr. 1 (Spring 2017), pp. 30-43.