Top of the 4th, Lineout SS

The play that led to this post is pretty great. With a man on first base, Brett Cecil delivers a pitch that gets ripped to the right of Yunel Escobar, and he makes a nifty little play to snag it on the fly.

You can hop to the MLB.com video of the play to see him in action.



If he had left it at that, and flipped to the ball to the pitcher, I wouldn't have made too much not of the play at all. I'm guessing that Yunel shocked himself a little bit when he came up with the ball, because he put on a little display after the catch. It brought a smile to my face.

I looked like this:

That reminded me so, so much of a magician, urging you to "Keep your eye on the ball." at the start of a trick, just as the illusion begins. Maybe Yunel felt like he'd already performed a little sleight of glove on that play.

Also, it is hard to see on the GIF, but he had some very comical looking side-eyes happening if you watch the video in fullscreen. You know, just making sure everybody is being honest on the infield.

I love this game, the seasons, and the moments. Come back, I post whenever I see a little magic (or amateur magician) on the field.