Idiots Write About Sports

Today on ESPN Rob Neyer wrote about “the most exciting play in baseball” — the point being, it’s in the eye of the beholder. Triple play, triple, inside-the-park, HR, you name it.

My vote for the most exciting play in baseball? A play in which the defensive team has a one-run lead with two outs in the bottom of the 9th (or later), but in which the offensive team can score two runs with a successful hit. Basically, it’s my favorite situation in baseball because the game can be won or lost instantaneously in a single pitch.

Usually, baseball doesn’t do things instantaneously. You take the lead in the top of the 9th and then close it out in the bottom. But when you’re trailing 3-2 with runners on second and third and two men out, 3-2 count so the runners will be moving on the pitch, that’s just the best. Could be a win, could be a loss. We just won’t know until this pitch…

Fouled off. Let’s do it all again.