The Weird, the Wild and the Wacky from the World of Sports

An early-season baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates usually passes without fanfare.

But when the Cubs player known as El Mago (the magician) for his ability to steal home plate is on the scene in 2021, take nothing for granted.  The magic worked in a game at Pittsburgh this week .. and it was a teammate of El Mago who scored .. and then El Mago did.  Multiple websites, including New York Magazine and various YouTube sites, took notice of Pittsburgh's horrendous mistakes on that one play that cost them the game.

The Cubs led 1-0 in the third inning with two outs and a man on second .. when Javy "El Mago" Baez hit a routine grounder to third base.  The ball was fielded cleanly by Pittsburgh but the throw was wide of the bag and the first baseman decided to tag the batter coming by, which would have ended the inning.

The ensuing sequence of Pirates boneheaded decisions and misfiring of baseballs is something rarely seen outside of Little League.

To see a video replay, Search nymag.com intelligencer javy baez cubs pirates

The batter, Baez, stops short of first.  Will Craig, the Pirates' rookie first baseman, thinks he can run down Baez who is moving -- with three hesitation moves -- back down the first-base line toward home plate.  Tagging Baez at any point would end the inning with no further damage by the runner from second, who is now bearing down on the plate from the other direction.

First baseman Craig sees the runner about to score and flips the ball to the catcher.  But the flip is high and it's too late to tag out the scoring runner.  Plus, it's unnecessary since getting Baez out short of first would still invalidate the run, whether by tagging Baez or stepping on first base ahead of El Mago with the ball in hand.

The catcher realizes he can still get the Pirates out of trouble by throwing the ball to the second baseman who is now rushing to first base to take a potentially inning-ending throw.

But the catcher's throw is wide of the mark, and Baez slides headfirst and safely into first base.  He pops up and continues on to second as the throw bounces past the infield.

From there, El Mago scores on a single to put the Cubs ahead, 3-0.

The Cubs won the game with those two runs, 5 to 3.

A New York Times baseball writer called it "one of the zaniest plays in baseball history."

Pirates manager Derek Shelton did not blame the rookie Craig for the crazy play, saying he, Shelton, takes the blame for his team not knowing baseball fundamentals.

The Cubs (28-22) are half a game out of first place in the National League's Central Division.  The Pirates (18-31) are in last place in the same division, already ten games out of first.  So the Baez/Craig play is a fine microcosm of the two teams' 2021 seasons to date.

  -- cccmedia