A Brief Appreciation Of Jackie Bradley Jr.'s Throw To Get Chase Headley
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Everybody has different reasons for watching sports, whether we're actively conscious of them or not. And in a sport like baseball, where at least 162 contests hit our TV screens every year, the added appeal of seeing something you've never seen before no doubt increases the appeal of tuning in.
And for anybody watching Tuesday night's Yankees-Red Sox game, that's precisely what happened in the seventh inning, when Jackie Bradley Jr. gunned down Chase Headley at third base.
It wasn't that we've never seen an outfield assist before. This particular assist was Bradley's 11th of the year, which is tops among AL center fielders.
Yet no matter how long you've been watching the sport of baseball, you've never seen a throw like that one.
This was a throw that Bradley has almost certainly never practiced. He was chasing a ball that ricocheted off the top of the scoreboard on the angled wall in left-center field at Fenway Park. In pursuit of the ball, he was running from left-center field to straightaway center field, coming in from the warning track about 20 feet. It's a diagonal angle that an outfielder is almost never forced to take, but given the strange dimensions of that 37-foot wall and all of its intricacies, it's the route Bradley was forced to take.
And if you watch the chase, Bradley lacked urgency. Perhaps he didn't think Headley would be going for three bases, or perhaps he was trying to goad the runner to attempt to stretch it to a triple, thereby falling into his trap.
As Bradley approaches the ball, he took one peek at the infield before taking his final seven or so steps. He got to the ball, grabbed it with his bare hand, and all in one motion, he spun, planted his right leg, and quickly released a strike -- all of his back leg, with his weight moving away from his target at full speed.
The result? A perfect one hop to Brock Holt, who was covering the third base bag.
Of course, the mini-brouhaha that bubbled up after the play stole much of the attention, because let's face it: we're suckers for drama. But that throw really was something -- and not something we've ever before seen.
At this point it's worth saying that Headley might have been safe. It's hard to tell ... though if he had just slid a bit more smoothly, he could have erased any and all doubt.
Instead, he'll just go down as the latest victim who relied on his decades of playing baseball to determine that there would be no possible way for Bradley to throw him out at third base.
