Okay, let’s indulge in some fantasy. It’s an off-day, good time to play Walter Mitty.
If you could perform one single feat on a baseball field, what would it be? Would you hit a home run, steal home, leg out a triple, break-up a double-play, strike a hitter out (swinging or looking), nail a runner trying to score, or would you leap over the outfield fence to rob a hitter of a home run?
Which one of these? Or perhaps you’ve got something else in mind. Do tell.
I thinking making a great fielding play would be dope but since I was never a power hitter I'm going with the home run.
I would like to be able tor throw 100 mph with pinpoint control and sick movement.
This is going to sound pretty blah to most, but as a 1B I'd love to start and end a balletic 3-6-3. Diving stop... pivot and throw from one knee... race to the bag... tough scoop on the back end.
That, or break out the knucksie with a pro at the plate.
I'd like to manage one game.
Steal home.
(But not against Pettitte; that’s too easy, apparently.)
I would want to make the Ozzie Smith bare handed play with two outs and men on second and third in Game 7 of the World Series ( my team leading 2-1 in the game).
I would want to rob someone of a homerun (preferrably a Red Sock) in the playoffs. Either that or try and take out the catcher on a close play at the plate. That would be sweet.
After fouling off 10 straight 95 mph fastballs straight back with a full count, bases loaded and tying run on third base, I'd like to hump one up to 99 and finally get Manny to swing through one to win the world series. Yeah, that about does it. : )
I guess I have Mo on the mind, but I'd pick throwing that amazing cutter of his three times to a lefty power hitter - any one - and striking the guy out with it.
To watch that thing dance from the mound has got to be an amazing sight to behold.
turn a triple play.
i came close once when i was in little league, but the 1b could have gone on to play for the mets as he (i played with boys with my brother for a few years when i was young) dropped the damn ball.
Hit a legit inside-the-parker. No doubt.
I'd like to hit one into the black in the old stadium. If was going to be greedy, I'd want it to be off Pappelbon for a walk-off win.
I love it when the guys who get dusted by a knock-down pitch respond with a dinger.
I'd pick that.
I'd like to throw a baserunner out at first after a batted ball to to RF. Or some Ichiro type assist to third.
Snap a bat on a check swing because I am so mighty.
I would like to pitch a perfect game in Yankee Road Grays at The Fens, with Joba Chamberlain's 2007 stuff, 15 strikeouts, five groundouts, seven popups, and no three-ball counts.
I don't ask for much...
: )
I guess my one single event would be to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium on Bama Yankee Day as my number is retired in celebration of my Hall of Fame career in pinstripes...
full sprint diving catch with my back to the plate on a ball to a gap, something much better than the mays catch that everyone loves
[18] correction: lunging, not diving- i want it to look graceful
I would love to have hit Aaron Boone's homer.
With a bit of practice (ok, a lot of practice), I could probably hit a 70mph knuckleball that doesn't knuckle. Boone's context was the best case scenario for someone with normal athletic ability. All the other stuff (diving catches, stealing home, throwing hard, etc...) requires MLB athletic level ability. Hitting that meatball from Wakefield is possible for the slightly above average man.
And can you imagine what that jog around the bases must be like after such a homer? With the crowd going beserk and your teammates waiting at homeplate? Boone's greatest moment of his life probably.
If I had to pick a super athletic move, I would love to make a catch scaling up the Green Monster to save the game.
I would sprint full speed at the wall. My momentum would allow me to take two steps up the wall in a Jackie Chan type move. Then I would put up my glove at the apex of the climb and catch the ball for the final out, saving a double and thus the game and the ALCS. I would tumble to the ground in a roll and rise up to a stunned crowd at Fenway.
I love those acrobatic, tumbling webgem catches in the outfield. It would be great to do that. Maybe the last out of game 7 of the WS. ;-)
In reality, I am a terrible OFer. I fully empathize with A-Rod, because I can't catch fly balls, either.
I was sitting above the 1B dugout in Scranton, when Shelley Duncan hit a towering popup. I thought it was going to land on my head. Actually, it was caught on the 3B line. (In my defense, people 12 rows behind me were screaming and yelling, "I got it, I got it!")
to pitch like pedro in his prime. make batters look silly trying to catch up to my fastball and swing very early to my change-up.
If a baseball wish would be grated it would be for mo's throw to second to be straight, in game 7 of the 01 series...
To be able to throw a devastating slider, the kind that makes the batter shake his head as he dejectedly walks back to the bench
I would love to be the catcher for a super smooth strike 'em out throw 'em out double play, where the high heat I call is so obviously the opposite of what the batter is looking for that he swings three inches below the ball.
a close second would be nailing a guy taking too big a lead from third up a run in the 9th.