September 16, 2021
1. An umpire ejected the entire grounds crew in Baltimore
Technically speaking, it was more of a “get the hell off the field right now” move than a permanent ejection for the night, but still — something you’ve never seen in baseball before:
From the ESPN article, the umpire being quoted:
“I didn’t ‘eject’ the grounds crew,” Timmons said in a text to The Associated Press. “I just didn’t want all of them behind the tarp, especially with the infield in.”
Dismissed, then, perhaps. Removed. Shoo’d away. In any case, an immediate skyrocketing insertion into the top ten baseball highlights of the year. What a scene, and what a photo:
2. Cedric Mullins made one of the best catches of the year
It’s not every day that you see the Orioles connected to the two biggest highlights of the night:
3. Trea Turner beating out an infield grounder is pure baseball beauty
How does he do this? How!
One of the best-ever deadline pickups for the Dodgers, and he came along with Max Scherzer — who might just win the N.L. Cy Young.
4. Christian Yelich buys 10,000 tickets for Brewers fans
Not sure if this is an awesome gesture, or an indictment of the state of Brewers fandom, that the players need to pay for the fans to show up:
5. Shohei Ohtani transcends baseball, becoming one of TIME’s “100 Most Influential People of the Year”
We’re all lucky to have watched him soar, this whole summer.
6. The non-Mullins catch of the night: Lars Nootbaar
And up there for the best name in baseball, too.
The Cardinals sweep the Mets, taking over the N.L. Wild Card completely, and when the one chance arose for things to maybe turn the other way — it ends with a robbed home run at the wall.
7. The next-best catch of the night: This guy in San Francisco
Reaching around the foul pole, to catch a home run ball. Never seen that before, in many many thousands of games.
8. The Dodgers clinched a postseason spot last night
Following the Giants, they’re now the second team that’ll officially be part of October — clinching at least a Wild Card berth for now.
And on Fernando Valenzuela bobblehead night, no less:
9. Mets owner Steve Cohen is into Twitter drama yet again
New York Post writer Mike Puma came out with an article yesterday disparaging Steve Cohen, with quotes from an anonymous baseball source, prompting Cohen to simply come out with who he “knew” it was.
Here’s the response from both Mike Puma and David Samson:
I’ll be listening to The Michael Kay show this afternoon, to see what “the accused” has to say in response. The New York sports and media world is a weird, eternally contentious place.
10. And lastly: The MLB standings as of this afternoon
Into the final two weeks now, a festival of must-watch baseball, night after night after night.
And the Wild Card standings:
