As the poet Alexander Pope said, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” So, let us be charitable to the miscreants of our national pastime, even as we laugh at their foibles.
Ke’Bryan Hayes (photo courtesy Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ Ke’Bryan Hayes gave us two for the price of one on a June night in 2021. Hayes lined an opposite-field drive in the first inning against the Dodgers’ Walker Buehler that cleared the right-field wall inside the foul pole. Running hard and with his eyes on the ball, Hayes missed first base with his left foot by a couple of inches and kept going. After completing what he thought was his home-run trot, the Dodgers challenged, and after a brief video review, Hayes’ home run was changed to an out.
But Hayes wasn’t finished. In the third inning, he singled to center with one out. Pirates centerfielder Bryan Reynolds then hit a fly ball to left field that AJ Pollock caught for the second out of the inning. Hayes tagged up and ran to second base. He made it in time but fell off the bag, where Chris Taylor tagged him for the final out of the inning.
The Pirates had earlier entertained us in May of that year with a play that has to be seen to be believed. With the Chicago Cubs’ Willson Contreras on second base and two outs in the third inning, Javier Baez hit a routine ground ball to third baseman Erik Gonzalez. His throw to first baseman Will Craig was a bit up the line, pulling Craig off the bag. Baez stopped running to avoid Craig and backtracked toward home plate. Craig made the mistake of chasing him. All Craig had to do was touch first base for the final out of the inning,
Meanwhile, Contreras rounded third and sprinted home. Craig attempted a flip to catcher Michael Perez, but Contreras slid under the tag. Knowing he still had to reach first base safely for the run to count, Baez took off for first. No one was covering first base, and as second baseman Adam Frazier tried to get there, Pérez’s throw sailed past him, allowing Baez to reach first safely and advance to second.
Craig, who had the reputation of being an outstanding fielder in the minor leagues, told reporters after the game, “I guess I’m going to be on the blooper reels for the rest of my life.”
If video were available throughout the history of baseball, he would be in good company.
In 1931, an April 26 game against the Washington Senators, the Yankees’ Lou Gehrig hit what should have been a home run with Lyn Lary on first base. Lary thought the ball had been caught and did not run to second. Not paying attention and assuming Lary would be rounding the bases ahead, Gehrig passed Lary at first. If the rear runner passes the lead runner on the bases, the rear runner is called out. So, when Gehrig passed Lary at first, he was called out and given a single rather than a home run. That gaffe cost Gehrig the outright home run title because he finished tied with teammate Babe Ruth with 46 round-trippers at the end of the year.
The 1926 Brooklyn Dodgers pulled off one of the most famous baserunning blunders, now known as the “three men on third” incident. With Dazzy Vance on second and Chick Fewster on first, Babe Herman hit a long drive that fell in the outfield. As Herman rounded second base, the third-base coach yelled for him to return because Fewster had not yet reached third. Vance, who had just rounded third, misunderstood and returned to third. Fewster continued towards third, and Herman ignored the instructions and kept going to third. So now, Vance, Fewster, and Herman were all standing at third base, and the third baseman got the ball. Fewster and Herman decided to let Vance have possession of third and headed back toward second, but both were tagged out. The Dodgers, who could have had runners at second and third with nobody out and a run in, instead had a runner on third with two outs.
In 2003 at Pac Bell Park, the San Francisco Giants’ Ruben Rivera represented the potential winning run as a pinch-runner for Andrés Galarraga at first base with a 2–2 score and one out in the ninth inning. Marquis Grissom hit a ball to deep right-center field. Rivera advanced to second base but reversed course two steps beyond it, thinking that right fielder David Dellucci had caught the ball. Realizing that Dellucci had missed the ball, Rivera ran past second base but missed it, returned to retouch it, and headed to third. The relay throw by second baseman Junior Spivey would have been in plenty of time to nail Rivera at third, but the throw was low and bounced off third baseman Alex Cintrón’s glove towards shortstop Tony Womack. Rivera then tried to score, but Womacks’s throw nailed the sliding Rivera at home plate by five feet.
Giants broadcaster Jon Miller, who called the play, deemed it “the worst baserunning in the history of the game.” Fortunately (or unfortunately for Rivera), this play was captured on video.
____________
This column first appeared in The Vacaville Reporter on June 10, 2021.
