Tied, Top 8 PO, 5-3

Ryan Zimmerman is the kind of player you want at third base for you favourite team. He's a threat on both the offensive and defensive side of the game. He plays his position well, and over his career, has been a well above average defensive third baseman, getting a Total Zone Rating of between plus 10 and plus 18 for all of his full years playing, with the exception of 2011, when he was mysteriously below average.

We don't celebrate great careers here at Baseball Is Magic, though. We celebrate great moments, and Ryan Zimmerman had one on Sunday, April 15th, 2012. You'll see he's wearing number 42 on his back, because this was Jackie Robinson Day.

Zimmerman was channelling a different Robinson on this play, however.

Not, not Frank. Brooks. Or, Hoover, as he was called by his admirers.

Observe, four frames from the left field camera view:

Pitch on the way

Now keep your eye...

On the ball....

And he'll make it disappear!

Super job, Mr Zimmerman! The timestamp indicates that less than 2 seconds have elapsed from delivery to success. Well, success in stopping the ball. Ryan still has to make the play 100 feet away, where the first baseman is wondering how the heck he just did that.

The whole highlight is here on MLB.com.

Zimmerman's Snag

The tail end of the video is certainly worth it too, the batter is running well wide of the first base line. Why? He's looking to see how the left fielder is going to play the ball down the line. He has no clue Zim was even able to lay a glove on the ball. And he can go into the dugout and think about that for a little bit.

This story from the Washington Post brought Zimmerman's play to my attention.