As an umpire, I've seen a lot of amazing plays over the years, but one of the very best I've ever seen came yesterday at Yankee Stadium.
The Twins were in a tie game, bottom of the ninth, and the Yankees had the winning run on 2nd. A ground ball up the middle was knocked down by Twins pitcher Jose Mijares and deflected back towards home plate.
Mauer scooped it up and bluffed a throw to 1st base, thinking that perhaps the runner going from 2nd to 3rd would make a big turn at 3rd and Mauer might have a chance to pick him off. Instead, the runner kept coming towards home, and Mauer had to scramble to tag him out. For Mauer, it was a great display of baseball instincts and athleticism. Watch the video HERE.
Follow-up note: My son Travis, who lives in NYC, was at the game yesterday and pronouced the new Yankee Stadium "sweet."
That was world class! Making St. Paul proud. Of course if Denard Span could have put even one good swing on a ball it would have made that whole play irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteThere were actually plenty of Twins fans at the game. And Yankees fans weren't nearly as obnoxious as I was expecting.
The new stadium is really a gem. It's gotten a lot of negative press, but I thought it was great. Huge concourses, you can see the field from everywhere, the trains are lined up and waiting to take you home afterward. A good experience all around.