In 2015, the light-hitting utility infielder Jonathan Herrera nudged a fly ball just over the wall in right-center field, into the Wrigley Field basket for a home run. The fans cheered as he circled the bases. They wound down their cheering as he disappeared into the dugout. They reduced to a hum after he’d been out of sight for about 15 seconds, and once the pitcher started throwing pitches to the next batter it’s a good bet that most of those fans had forgotten his name.
And *that* is when Herrera jumped out of the dugout for a curtain call.
There’s a lot of debate about the “first” curtain call, but one that is frequently cited is the call Dale Long got after homering for a record eighth consecutive game. In that case, the crowd held a three-minute standing ovation before Long returned for his bow. The only thing that could have made Jonathan Herrera’s joke funnier is if he, too, had waited three minutes.
What the crowd didn’t know—while it was not giving Herrera a three-minute standing ovation—was where they were in Herrera’s story. That hit was his career’s ending, basically; its climax, certainly. He played seven major league seasons with 311 carer hits, and this pinch-hit solo home run to put the Cubs up by five runs was the 311th.
“I sorta think he might have known that was it for him,” wrote reader Mike, who asked me to consider this video highlight. Which would mean that Herrera wasn’t taking a goofy curtain call for a forgettable home run, but a very sincere curtain call for a forgettable career. Forgettable home runs don’t really matter; forgettable careers matter a great deal, and deserve a bow. I’m confident the Wrigley fans would have produced the ovation Herrera pretended to have heard had they known what was happening.
But we rarely know what’s happening. I’m less confident than reader Mike that even Herrera knew what was happening. He hit that homer on Sept. 6, when the Cubs had 27 games left. Herrera had appeared in about half the Cubs’ games to that point. He could have hoped to play another 10 or 15 games in the regular season, get maybe 20 more plate appearances, rap out a few more hits. Then there would be the playoffs, which the Cubs would be in. And then Herrera would be a free agent, a replacement level utility guy to be sure but only 30 years old and no worse than he’d always been. Instead, the young Cubs call-ups Javy Báez and Tommy LaStella took most of his at-bats in September, and he only got one more plate appearance (and struck out); and then he was left off the playoff rosters; and then nobody signed him that winter, so he spent two years playing in the Mexican League before he officially retired.
So I doubt he thought this was his last hit. I could believe that maybe he thought this might be his final home run. He only hit 10 in his career, only hit two that season, with the other getting out by… an inch?
He was not a power hitter. After one of his previous nine home runs, while his teammates tossed him around the dugout,
the Rockies broadcaster said that “his teammates give him a really hard time because he has two home runs in batting practice this year. He’ll go a month without hitting one out in BP.” So, yes, it was realistic for Herrera to think that his homer at Wrigley was his last chance to take a major league curtain call after a home run. Which would be touching.
What makes the clip ambiguous is Anthony Rizzo.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Pebble Hunting to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.