WATCH: Lower level baseball gives us a baserunner cheating at the highest level

John McGraw would be proud of this type of play, but what were the umps looking at?

Because this is the internet, we will now point you to the following crudely shot video that's positively turgid with viral potential. Join us as we venture into the lawless hinterlands of lower-level baseball for some higher-level cheating ... 

All right. Let's talk a bit about this. This appears to be a squeeze play that plates a pair of runs for, it seems, Montana-based Dawson Community College. The first run seems to be achieved with full sanction and legitimacy. But the second run? People, the second run ... 

Yes, the base runner, with obvious malice aforethought, peeled off of his secondary lead and took the service entrance to home plate. This is known as dry-gulching baseball propriety. It's also known as cheating. There's also a Facebook discussion going on about not only the meme your aunt shared but also this play. Here's one noteworthy take ... 

As for the old-school bona fides, sure, depending on how old the school is. John McGraw, for instance, during his playing days would sometimes go straight from second base to home plate across the mound when the ump wasn't leveling his gaze at him. He would also, when playing the field, grab the base runner by the waistband so as to slow his progress. Doubtless, John McGraw would approve of what we see above. But when you say old school, do you mean to usher us back to the days of gargling turpentine to treat tertiary syphilis? Presumably not. 

Also, there's a problem with the idea that this base runner's grift flowed from the presence of a two-man umpiring crew ... 

I count three umps. Sure, maybe ump No. 1 is just some guy ambling across the field or perhaps the spectral presence of John McGraw proceeding directly to the plate to score the third run of the play, but he certainly looks umpish in mien and bearing. That our mountebank base runner was able to perpetrate this act without one of those umps noticing, particularly the field ump, is ... impressive, in a charitable use of the term. 

Anyhow, it's not certain when this play happened. The video was uploaded in April of this year. However, the base runner of note wears No. 4, and there's no No. 4 presently listed on the Dawson roster. Was he kicked off the team in condemnation of this brazen act or was his number promptly retired in celebration of his can-do savvy? Why not both, people?

Or maybe this happened a long time ago, and we're just now talking about it. To repeat, this is the internet.