Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Iguchi

I know it happened Saturday, but I can't stop thinking about what I saw.

Here's the deal. We're in the afternoon and I'm playing Strat with a buddy in a pub on the Danforth (street near Downtown, for the out-of-towners). The Blue Jays are playing the ChiSox on the big screen next to us.
We see Bobby Jenks come out in the 9th inning for the save (we notice this because Jenks is known as Gerald in our neck of the woods - but that's an unrelated matter). We're barely paying attention, I like the Sox, because of Guillen mostly and don't care for the Jays, and we see Glaus reach first with one out.
Bengie Molina is up to bat next and he hits a slow grounder on the first base side of the mound.
Tadahito Iguchi charges for the ball, dives head first, but there's no way he's making that play. Molina reaches first, with Glaus on 2nd and immediately Molina heads to the dugout, we laugh thinking he knew the Jays would want a faster runner right away (they were down by 2).
But we were wrong. Iguchi sacrificed his body and his face to make the most unbelievable play ever. We were speechless and simply stood up and bowed - the pub was pretty empty. Sweet Fancy Moses! What a play.

Here's the official description.
In one motion, Iguchi pushed himself up slightly with his glove hand and made an acrobatic, sidearm throw to Konerko at first.
When Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen first saw Iguchi try to throw as he was falling, he was thinking, "We got second and third with one out."

Click here to see a photo, and here for a smaller one.

I've been unable to find video. But if you go to TSN.ca this week and check out the plays of the week you will see it at around the 1 minute mark.
I'm saying it here, the only team that can beat my beloved Athletics are the Pale Hose.
Un-freakin-believable ... What a play!

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