 Every once in a while there's an unusual play where a ball is hit just past a fielder and in a moment of sheer panic he throws his glove at the ball to try to stop it and his teammates just kind of stand around and wonder if maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to give him the rest of the day off. This may seem like a kind of ridiculous thing to do especially if you've been playing baseball for a while but I was actually surprised to learn that it does in fact happen at least every once in a while even in the major leagues but our question for today is are you allowed to do this and of course would it ever be a good idea to do it. So point number one is that the act of throwing your equipment which in this case means your glove, your hat, any article of apparel which would include like your catcher's mask and presumably the pouch of Big League Chew you have in your back pocket is not inherently illegal only if the glove or the equipment or whatever makes contact with the ball does it then become an issue. Although the second point is that if the umpire signals that the ball has been touched by the thrown glove then the ball is still actually in play and the runners can advance at their own peril which will come back to in a second. So as for what actually happens if we have a fair ball that a player deliberately touches with his detached equipment then the batter is free to advance three bases but again the ball is still in play so if he wants to he can try to run home for an inside the park home run but if he does take this risk then he can still be thrown out at home. This rule will also apply to any runner on base meaning that essentially in practice they would score although keep in mind that if the batter is trying to run the whole way around to score an inside the park home run then the runner would have to stay in front of him and score like a normal play because he cannot get passed up. So practically speaking here if you're a batter or runner in the situation unless the ball is like way in the outfield and this happens probably just stop at the base and let the umpire send you to third. It's a free triple don't try to be a hero. Next we have a similar situation where detached equipment is trucked at the ball but rather than that ball having been hit it was a ball that was thrown by another fielder. In this case the runners and the batter can advance just two bases although again the ball is in play so if it bounces away from the players you can still try to make a run for additional bases if you want to but again just make sure it has taken quite a crazy bounce before you risk it. The rule does clarify here just to be specific that the action of using equipment must be a deliberate one so if for example a ball is hit or thrown so hard that when a fielder tries to make a legitimate catch the force of the ball knocks the glove right off of his hand he's not in any violation here. I was actually introduced to this rule because back in my playing days I knocked so many gloves off a guy's hands that it became kind of a safety hazard so this means that you cannot take your hat off and catch the ball in your hat but if you lose your balance say while playing shortstop or something and you kick or use your glove to kind of bat the ball to another fielder in that case you would be fine. You may have also seen the occasional play where a ball becomes lodged into a fielder's glove and so they're forced to take off their whole glove and throw it and the ball over to the first basement for the out. This is also completely legitimate and probably the only scenario where you should take your glove off as a fielder. Finally though you might be thinking why not try to throw your glove up in the air to block a home run. In this case the rules are way ahead of you because the penalty for whipping your equipment of fly ball that would have in the umpire's judgment gone over the fence had it not been for contacting said equipment is that it is an automatic home run. So as a recap everybody else might think you're weird but in terms of the rules this is not actually a big deal unless you hit the ball with your thrown equipment. Throwing equipment must be intentional hitting a batted ball gets runner three bases hitting a thrown ball gets him two but the ball is still in play and he can go for more if he wants to. All of this is to say it's probably not a good idea to throw things at a live ball. Other than a few goofy cases specific to a very large or very oddly shaped field I can't really think of one outside of you wanting the rest of the day off and thus feigning a breakdown by throwing your athletic supporter at the ball.