Larry Stone with a fun piece on his favorite plays in a baseball game.

Supposing you were going to go to one game this week, and didn't know a thing about it, other than that it was going to have one particular play in it.  You didn't know the opponent, the starting pitcher, the outcome... but you did get to pick Tuesday, Friday, or Saturday based on knowing it would have a particular play in it.  Which play would you want to see?

I agree with Stone on #1, #4, and #6 in his article, but beyond that, here are the fave plays in Jemanji's warped reality...

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Z.  A good baserunner kill.

In the Kingdome, a Mariner pitcher tossed one down the RF line trying to pick the runner off.  The ball rattled around in the bullpen.  The runner hit second and took off for third.

Charging into the bullpen was Jay Buhner, jaw grimly set and a Sylar scowl on his face.  Bone smoothly scooped the ball, did a perfect footwork-hop.  Quickly but not hurriedly, he overhanded a deliberate, powerful throw that bounced once and hit the third baseman in the mitt.

The ump punched the runner out, with gusto.  Buhner was stomping back to his position like a gunslinger, glaring back at third base. 

I looked over at Cindy.  She was staring at Buhner, tears trickling down her face.

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Related to this is the attempt to take a base.  Stolen bases, 1st-to-3rds, are great to watch, and I n-e-v-e-r mind if the runner's thrown out.  It takes so much to occur, perfectly, to get the runner, and you give the runner credit for putting pressure on the opponent.

I especially like when the runner pressures the opponent, should have been thrown out, and the throw is wide or the ball dropped. 

It takes a special kind of fielder to throw hard, but under control, as Ichiro does and as Buhner always did.

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Y.  A 14-strikeout performance.

When Randy Johnson pitched in the Kingdome, baseball was a first-person shooter video game.

Sometimes you get a similar feeling from Erik Bedard and/or Felix Hernandez.  ...when the starting pitcher is just taking his pick of which pitch to use for strike three, time stops for me and the world is the width of the ballpark.

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X.  A player out of position. 

In a Lou Piniella game, you might see Jeff Nelson in left field, or 5 infielders, or somebody weird catching or something.  If you told me that Ichiro (or any other position player) was going to get an inning on the mound, I'd pay box-seat prices to sit in the bleachers.

This actually occured in 2009, quite a bit.  It was called Jack Hannahan, SS.  If Capt Jack and Wok had done nothing else, that act alone would have cleansed my palate of all the MLB(TM) pate that we had in the years previous.

No special reason; I just like seeing great athletes apply their talent to unfamiliar challenges.  I'll bet Jeff Nelson would have been by far the best outfielder in your park-and-rec softball league.

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Part II