When a ball is hit into the left-field corner at Fenway Park and a Red Sox base runner comes barreling around second base thinking about trying to score, it may take him a moment to locate Boston’s third-base coach, Brian Butterfield, who will be either waving him around or putting up a stop sign.
Butterfield will not be in the chalk-outlined coaching box near the bag. Nor will he be out where the infield dirt meets the outfield grass, where some third-base coaches alight to get into the runners’ field of vision more quickly.
Instead, Butterfield will be in one of the last places a runner might expect to look: in the field of play — a few steps inside the third-base line about halfway between home plate and third base.