Starting an Inning on Second Base

By Wade Shaw, Grandfather of Redwinger Ethan

There is a reason for the plate on the pitcher's mound in baseball, but its exact purpose is not always clear.
I was able to watch grandson Ethan's Redwing team Tee Ball semifinal game yesterday with the Moms in the north bleachers. For October in Texas it was windy, and surprisingly cold, and we were all feeling chilled as the game's innings went on for a good long while. There were copious runs, but no real scorekeeping. There were no outs that I noticed. None of us in the bleachers really knew many of the rules, but everyone knew one important rule.

Every Tee Ball game ends in precisely 45 minutes.
But this one had not ended after an hour, and in the bleachers the other Moms were pawing at their cell phones inside their purses, texting, "we b late. dunno wen. get pizza". Probably the game would end soon

But it did not. After another chilly 20 minutes, and uncountably more runs, the coaches met on the pitcher's mound. After some scribbling on the scorekeeper's card the coaches eventually shrugged, nodded, and returned to their dugouts. A rumor sprang up the rows of bleachers followed closely by smiles of relief. A final sudden-death inning had been declared. Run counting being politically incorrect in Tee Ball, the winner would be the first team to put a runner out.
"Whatever," the bleacher Moms grumbled, "it's dinner time". We didn't know the rules, and sudden death sounded, well, quick. After a day of school the lads in the dugouts were clearly reaching a hunter-gatherer crisis. Most players were now fruitlessly picking through their backpacks for previously-scorned lunch snacks.
In the event, we all thought we knew at least one more baseball rule. No one gets on first base unless they bat. Right?
Wrong. There was surprised chatter in the bleachers, when at the start of this final sudden-death inning, Ethan's coach shouted into the dugout, "Ethan, put your helmet on and go stand on second base. No. Leave your glove. Go right now!"
Ethan hadn't batted, and in fact no one on his team had. How could Ethan go straight to second base, we wondered, even in Tee Ball? The coach then called the next Redwing batter up. "What's this?", the Moms muttered quietly, none daring to to question Tee Ball rules. "Its Tee Ball rewind!", someone quipped to short laughter. "Ethan was on second in the last inning, so..."
Out on the diamond with both feet on second, Ethan looked intently towards right field where he often played. "Why is he looking out there?", I asked his mother quietly. "Not unreasonable." another Mom offered. We'd already seen the opposing catcher take his bat and go home. Perhaps Tee Ball rules allowed the team at bat to loan fielders to the opposing team?
Whack! The Redwing batter hit a sudden grounder, and Ethan leapt off second base and ran like the wind. He ran straight for the pitcher's mound in fact. In both bleachers the Moms were up and yelling, "Third! Run to Third"! Ethan slowed at the mound, grinned, and made a careful circle completely around the pitcher's mound on his way to third base. Safe, he acknowledged a standing ovation from the Moms of both bleachers with aplomb.

Why put a base on the pitcher's mound if you aren't supposed to run around it, I thought, as the Moms pushed post-game snacks through the dugout fence to the Redwings.