"If we just move first base one foot, we'd get rid of all the close plays."
What Yogi is saying, in the pure wisdom of Yogi, is that baseball is perfectly balanced. The plays are almost always close at first base. The distance from the plate to first base, 90', is somehow perfect. Everything depends on infielders being really good at their jobs for nearly every play to be close. Otherwise the batter will take first base every time.
But because of the distance-relationship between a batted ball, the infielder's reaction and the batter's running speed, nearly every play at first base will be close if all these players are operating at maximum efficiency.
An infielder mishandles the ball, that is called an error, and the batter takes first base.
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