A little pick me up for your Monday quarantine blues, a video I can watch over and over again because these plays will never get old. I highly encourage watching the full video before, reading I wanted to do a break down of some of my favorite plays from this highlight reel.
Not only do videos like this make me miss baseball, a lot, but all these highlights from different moments in baseball history brought me back to when I was a kid. Twitter started back in 2006 and back then sports highlights weren’t getting immediately posted minutes after they actually happened. The only way you could watch highlights like these was on SportsCenter’s Top 10. Staying up late to watch Jeter dive into the stands because I knew it would come in at number one is something I will never forget. And how could you forget the classic ESPN noise we all made when we saw someone may a great play, “da da da, da da da.” You knew when you heard that noise you were ESPN’s Top 10 worthy. Now, for me at least and I’m sure like many people, I see many sports highlights on Twitter because it’s the easiest place to share sports content today. No one wants to wait until ten o’clock at night to watch sports highlights when they are a trending a page away on Twitter. It just shows how Twitter has transformed over the years to become a go to for all things happening in our world today. Today it is the go to place for sports fanatics and athletes to come together, watch some sports highlights then discuss and interact.
Of course this play was going to be in my highlights, how could you not love this play? Even though many Jeter haters will say he didn’t have to fall into the stands and despite being discussed as a poor defender, Jeter has had many iconic plays over the course of his career. It was in these big moments that he truly succeeded and where many of those heroic moments were born. This play is no different, coming in the 2001 ALDS against the Oakland Athletics just two days after making his iconic “the flip” play in Oakland. Man I could stare at that picture all day, goosebumps.
I love everything about this about this video, the ball caroms off of Torres leg and Murphy has to dive away from the bag with his back turned and flip to an incoming Torres. Absolutely beautiful to watch Murphy make this play because it is incredibly harder than it seems. Murphy was already taking a step to cover first when he would have to switch directions on a dime and dive away from the bag. With his back towards the infield he has to take a complete guess as to where first base would be and give Torres a chance to catch the ball and tag the base. The ball perfectly leads Torres right to the bag making for an incredible play to end the game. What makes the play even better is the call, definitely Top Ten worthy.
Definitely one of my favorites from the video was Angels Mike Trout robbing Mariners’ Jesus Montero of a 3-run home run in 2015. Trout is no stranger to the highlight reel as the guy has been easily one of the best players in baseball for awhile. This catch was basically another example of how this guy is an absolute cheat code. What makes Trout so spectacular as a player is the fact that he’s the definition of a five tool player. These five tools are speed, power, hitting for average, fielding and arm strength. These types of players are rare in baseball as usually a player might be good at two, three or four of these tools but not every single category is great. Trout has been able to maintain all of these tools for a number of years making him one of the best players in baseball history. Just take a look at how easy he makes this INCREDIBLY hard catch. Almost Griffey-esque if you ask me and that’s not bad company to be put with.
Until we get more sports, highlights are all we are going to be seeing for now and I will never not pass along videos like these. Seeing these videos gives us the motivation to stay inside and know that we will see more plays like these in the hopefully very soon future. As always, we miss you sports. Stay Safe everyone.
The Washed Up Athlete 