Last season, or maybe the year before, Tomas Perez and then-closer Jose Mesa had worked up a hidden ball play during the ninth inning of a Phillies game. They did so in Spanish, which the runner on 2nd base didn't speak.

Unfortunately, neither did Mike Lieberthal, who sensed something weird and called for time to discuss things with Mesa in between plays.

Anyway, Perez isn't just Mr. Pie, he's also apparently very intelligent on the field.

I've often wondered why infielders don't this more often. There's definitely a creative intelligence skill to baseball that's underutilized. Not that it has huge effect on the game, but it's fun, interesting, and occassionally productive.

My favorite play during Little League was sneaking in from CF to pick guys off of second base. Our shortstop and second basemen would fake interest, then move way away from the base, inviting the runner to take a bigger lead.

I always love the hidden ball trick. Talk about a way of deflating a guy's ego.

Adam