Chicago (tca/dpa) — Almost 24 hours after the hide-and-seek viewed around the world, everyone was still talking about Javier Báez’s once-in-a-lifetime play.
Well, everyone but Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Will Craig, who played the role of Wile E. Coyote to Báez’s Road Runner in the Chicago Cubs’ 5-3 win at PNC Park.
Craig was unavailable to speak with reporters after Thursday’s game, so we don’t know how he feels about being outsmarted and apparently not knowing the rules of the game. All Craig had to do was go back to first and touch the base as Báez was retreating to record the final out and negate Willson Contreras’s run.
But Craig seemingly was confused in the heat of the moment, making himself a part of baseball infamy like Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Ralph Branca after giving up Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” at the Polo Grounds in 1951, or Cubs fan Steve Bartman grasping for the foul ball at Wrigley Field during the 2003 National League Championship Series.
Articles and comments about the play were all over, and it even earned a mention on Thursday night’s White Sox telecast. It made morning new shows such as “Good Morning America,” where a national audience witnessed Javy being Javy.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton took the blame for Craig, who was playing in only his 15th major league game, though he had played 456 games in the minors since being drafted out of Wake Forest in the first round in 2016.
“The bag hasn’t moved in 140 years,” Shelton said on a postgame Zoom. “Our guys have got to know the rules. That’s my fault.”
The Pirates’ players and dugout also failed to yell at Craig to remind him to just go step on first, as pitcher Tyler Anderson conceded while also taking some of the blame. That’s a communication breakdown that seems more commonplace in this era.
Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks said it was a play you never will see again, because now that every player has seen it they’ll know not to be like Craig. That’s what makes the Báez deke so special. You watch baseball your whole life waiting to see something you’ve never seen before … and there it is.
“Amazing,” longtime Cubs radio voice Pat Hughes said before Friday’s game with the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field. “That’s part of the mystery and the fascination of the game.
“And a guy like Báez is almost on a different level from any player I have ever seen. It’s as if his mind works a split-second ahead of everyone else and he sees things before they happen.
“I’ve never seen anything even close to that. Of all the amazing plays he’s made, and there have been a lot of them, that one had to take the cake. To literally create a run, and eventually two runs, out of absolutely nothing is phenomenal.”
Two other factors ensured the moment would be remembered forever — the first being Marquee Sports’ Jim Deshaies’ unbridled exuberance as the play unfolded.
“This is so good,” Deshaies said in a low-key tone as Báez retreated, giving us a hint of what was to come from years of watching Báez do his thing. When Contreras drew the throw to the plate and Báez ruled him safe before running to the open base, Deshaies’ voice rose dramatically: “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Then, after watching Báez reach second on the throwing error and the ball get away once again, Deshaies sounded like a Little League dad shouting to his kid from the stands instead of an announcer watching from a monitor in a TV booth in Wrigley Field: “Keep going. Go. Go. Go. … Think you’re invisible.”
For Cubs fans who’ve missed the unapologetic, emotional, rollercoaster-style analysis of late radio broadcaster Ron Santo — who turned “Oh, no!” into a catchphrase in 1998 when Cubs outfielder Brant Brown dropped a fly ball in the ninth inning of an epic loss in Milwaukee during the heat of a pennant race — Deshaies’ call was a welcome blast from the past.
But the moment that really put an exclamation mark on the play was the sight of first baseman Anthony Rizzo doubled over laughing while hanging on the railing of the dugout. When he came into the final year of his Cubs contract unsigned, Rizzo promised he was going to enjoy himself this year no matter what happens. Clearly he has lived up to those words.
Baseball can make you happy, angry, sad or bored. It seldom makes you laugh out loud like you did while watching the play unfold. This was one of the made-for-emoji moments in which Rizzo and the entire Cubs dugout reacted the same way as everyone else watching on TV.
And the good news for fans is Báez is still in a Cubs uniform, at least for now.
So what will he do next? Stay tuned.
Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune