WATCH: Cespedes allows inside-the-park HR by refusing to get ball
The Mets center fielder could've picked up this fair-hit ball off the bat of Houston's A.J. Reed, but, well, nah.
By
Dayn Perry
•
1 min read
Spring, of course, is the season of figuring out what it takes to get by and then doing a bit less than even that. Never was this lifehack more acutely on display than in the second inning of Thursday's nigh meaningless Astros-Mets haphazard gathering of ballplayers. Please witness Yoenis Cespedes lost in the throes of barely-giving-a-damnedness ...
That's an inside-the-park home run off the bat of Astros prospect A.J. Reed, and it's an inside-the-park home run that was greatly abetted by a prevailing sense of Defensive ChillTM.
Mr. Cespedes' One Weird Trick to living the Good Life even while manning an up-the-middle position during a ball in play? Purport via sanctioned gesture of helplessness that bending down and picking up said ball is deemed excessive and perhaps even hazardous by the rulebook. Jurisdictional authority, what say you of these efforts at non-effort?
Boneheaded play by Cespedes and the best umpire reaction I've seen in years. #Mets #Astros #MLB pic.twitter.com/0CLnjrUhzm
— Jimmy's Jargon (@jimmysjargon) March 24, 2016
OK, so, no, it didn't work, but there is valor in every human attempt to evade even the most basic and deeply assumed tasks and duties. People, always give a wide berth to that which is asked of you. May you pass unnoticed -- as quiet as a mime's corpse -- on to whatever's next, and may whatever's next be demonstrably less Job- and Frodo-like in its burdens than that which you just gave the slip.
Most of life counts. Yet when confronted with those fugitive moments that don't count, by God act like they don't count. Yoenis Cespedes, warrior-poet of playing it as it lies, would have it no other way.
