May Strays

The slow development of a highlight and other weird stuff.

1. May In Highlight Theory
I once laid out my theory for highlights, which is that the very best highlights—Kevin Mitchell, Mark Buehrle, Derek Jeter, Bo Jackson, and countless others—are actually improvisations. “All of those plays were extraordinary because they were never practiced,” I said. “The fielders all had to get them right at game-speed on the very first try. Their brains had to invent, their bodies had to move in strange ways, and in succeeding they demonstrated not where their limits are but that their limits couldn’t be found. Throw anything at them; they’ll figure something out.”

There is a counterargument to this, and on May 23 Nico Hoerner argued it. Hoerner got a little chopper and successfully hiked it between his legs, no turn, no look, to first base for the out.

I’m not saying that highlight is on the level of The Catch, but you can hear from the broadcasters’ reaction how intensely satisfying it was in the moment, and it ended up as the headliner on MLB’s Top Plays roundup that day. While it looks an awful lot like improvisation, it’s actually the opposite. Hoerner’s been getting closer to this play for years.