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We’re inundated with “best of” lists at the end of the year. Whether it’s the best movies, records, books or even awards like All-MLB, we’re snowed under with celebrations of greatness.
But what about the best moments of, uhh, not greatness? Today, let’s celebrate the most magnificent bloopers from 2023, when our favorite heroic athletes ever so briefly became mortal.
Honorable Mention: Travis Kelce’s first pitch
Kelce has had quite the year. From winning the Super Bowl in February to dating the most popular musician in the world, things seem to be going pretty well for the Chiefs tight end. So, it’s really gratifying to see that maybe everything doesn’t go perfectly as proven by his first pitch at a Guardians game this spring.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes doesn’t have to worry about his job security.
10. Yankee fans and the squirrel
9. Corbin Carroll forgets to count
Carroll had a pretty great rookie year. He hit 25 home runs, stole 54 bags, won the NL Rookie of the Year Award and made it to the World Series. Of course, there were some lowlights, too, like when he let a run come in to score as he casually jogged back to grab his cap after thinking there were three outs in the inning.
This is the baseball equivalent of locking up the house only to remember, “Oh dagnubbit, I left the stove on.”
8. Kyle Isbel’s double into the Monster
Playing left field in Boston is never easy. With the Green Monster, any fly ball has the opportunity to become a physics problem as the fielder must try to calculate angles and exit velocities and the gravitational pull of the moon.
This time, the Royals’ Isbel made the problem even more difficult as he launched a ball straight into the Green Monster’s lights. I’m just not sure what my favorite part of this highlight is, though: Is it Masataka Yoshida scampering around, desperately looking for the baseball? Or is it the friendly scoreboard operator peeking his head out the window to offer some help?
When making a flip to the pitcher covering first base, many fielders are told to “lead” the pitcher to the bag. Well, when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. accidentally threw more of an alley-oop to his American League teammate in the All-Star Game, he realized he needed to lead his pitcher with a leap, too. Sadly, that didn’t work.
6. Enrique Hernández’s throw hits the ump
This is perhaps the quintessential blooper: Here we have Hernández in the midst of an incredible diving play and yet, instead of it becoming one of the best defensive plays of the season … it winds up on this list all thanks to an umpire who — as my mother would say — “makes a better door than a window.”
5. Luis Medina’s brain goes on the fritz
Who hasn’t walked into the kitchen only to stand there for a minute, looking around and wondering, “Why did I come in here?”
Unfortunately for Medina, after making a great stab at the comebacker, his brain just completely forgot what comes next. You can run the ball to the base yourself or you can throw it the first baseman. Unfortunately, Medina chose neither.
4. Adolis García’s cartwheel
With biceps the size of boulders and massive home runs that helped the Texas Rangers win their first World Series title, there is plenty to remember from García’s season. Of course, the one moment that will probably live on longest will be the outfielder’s incredibly impressive batter’s box cartwheel that he dropped after he was hit by a pitch from Framber Valdez in Game 2 of the Fall Classic.
3. Joey Lucchesi throws to an empty base
I’ve heard of ghost runners, but this is ridiculous! This might be something to work on during next spring’s PFPs.
2. Yan Gomes and the unfortunate perfecto
There have only been 24 perfect games thrown in Major League history. It makes sense: Not only does the pitcher have to be dominant, he has to be lucky, too. Batted balls need to find gloves, fielders can’t commit errors and, as Drew Smyly learned in April when he took a perfect game into the eighth inning, you need to make sure your catcher doesn’t accidentally tackle the person fielding the ball.
It’s a play that is so beautiful in its dysfunction that Fangraphs’ Davy Andrews even wrote a 13-stanza poem to the play. Take that, Homer’s Odyssey.
1. Giants and Dodgers team up for … chaos
It’s hard to top a perfect game being broken up with a blooper, but when the Dodgers and Giants faced off in June, the bottom of the 11th gave us some seriously weird baseball. With the Giants leading, 7-5, Mookie Betts hit a popup on the infield. After third baseman Casey Schmitt lost track of the ball, it landed harmlessly in the infield. So, pitcher Jakob Junis grabbed the ol’ horsehide and … hucked it into right field.
The Dodgers made sure to play their part in the madness, though, with Michael Busch getting caught in a rundown between third and home when Betts put his head down and raced for third.
As Giants manager Gabe Kapler said afterward, “I had to watch the replay of it like three or four times. It was such a strange play. One of the stranger ones I’ve been a part of. I don’t know what to say about it, it’s just so weird.”
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