My daughter pitched and my niece caught for the 2001 Ellisville Reds. We were deadlocked at 3-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning and facing a very good pitcher. My niece stepped to the plate with two outs and a runner on second base. Standing in the third base coaching box, I decided to take a risk and give my niece the bunt sign. She was an exceptional bunter, and I thought maybe we might score the winning run on an errant throw to first base. First pitch, foul bunt. Still bunt sign on. Second pitch, another foul. I flashed the bunt sign again, my niece looked twice to make sure, and she stepped back into the batter’s box. She put down the perfect bunt, and the third baseman threw the softball wildly past first. Reds win, Reds win!

What my niece demonstrated in that game years ago was the lost art of bunting. The technique she learned was pretty simple – position yourself up in the box so that you can catch the ball in front of home plate; when the pitch is thrown move your opposite leg slightly forward and place your hands apart with the bottom hand near the handle and the top hand in the middle of the barrel of the bat; and keep the bat parallel so you can easily deaden the ball upon impact. Sounds good, right, but have you watched MLB batters attempt to bunt recently? It is clearly the lost art at the major league level.

With the advent of the DH rule and pitchers no longer used at the plate to sacrifice, bunting is uncommon nowadays. Bunting for base hits is also clearly not the norm. The game has changed so much strategy wise. Not many teams play for just one run but rather rely on the home run ball. The statistics tell the story. In 2002, there were 772 bunt hits during the MLB season, about 2% of all hits. Last year it was less than 1%. When the movie Moneyball came out in 2011, Brad Pitt, starring in the role of Oakland’s general manager Billy Beane, famously responded to a player asking about bunting when the third baseman is back with “No bunting whatsoever”. MLB managers listened.

Brett Butler, whose 17-year career spanned six different MLB teams from 1981 to 1997, is widely thought of as the best bunter in modern history. Butler led off for most of his career and played center field. He led the National League in triples and runs scored in two seasons, batted .290 overall, and garnered 2,375 hits. 188 of those hits were bunt hits. Most notably, Butler reached base on a bunt hit in 50% of his attempts.

Number 4 on the modern day list of top bunters is my second favorite Dodger of all time, Maury Wills (my first is Sandy Koufax). In watching LA in the 1960s, you needed to be a fan of speed and defense. Wills embodied both. In his 14-year career, Maury stole 586 bases (setting the season stealing record at one point with 104 in 1962), batted .281 with 2,134 hits, and won two Gold Gloves at shortstop. Wills was known as a master craftsman of bunting. His 124 career bunt hits were gained with a success rate of 47% attempted bunts.

On the not so great bunter list is current Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts. As an example, in 2004, Roberts attempted to reach base via a bunt 33 times and was only successful in seven of them. In Roberts’ 10-year playing career with five different MLB teams, he batted a modest .266 and stole 243 bases. Roberts’ MLB success, of course, is helming LA for the last ten seasons. The Dodgers won two World Series (2020, 2024) with Roberts on the top step of the dugout. While his teams are known for hitting, pitching, and exceptional defense, they are in the bottom of the league in bunting. Now you know why.

The rule in MLB extra inning games introduced in 2020, adding a ghost runner at second base at the start of each half inning, adds a new dimension to the lost art of bunting. The issue is whether the first batter should bunt the ghost runner to third. Traditionalists say yes, so that a fly ball or an infield play might advance the runner home. The managers and the statistics say no. The road teams typically play for more than one run, having the leadoff man swing away 90% of the time with a winning percentage of 51%. Home teams swing away less often, 82% of the time. If the game is still tied in the bottom of the inning, home managers though opt to bunt 60% of the time with a winning percentage of 77%. Maybe bunting is on the comeback trail.

Two of my most faithful blog followers were also exceptional bunters in their playing days. They happen to be brothers, and both second basemen on their knothole (Little League) teams. When I told them that my article this week was titled “Lost Art”, they both responded immediately that the topic had to be bunting. I doubt that many MLB players today would understand the sentiment.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach