A Throw for the Ages?

Adam Gopnik wrote a wonderful book years ago called Angels and Ages about Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. One of the focal points of the book was the famous words Edward Stanton said upon the death of Lincoln.

He said: “Now he belongs to the ages.”

Or did he? Because it’s at least possible that he actually said: “Now he belongs to the angels.”

I don’t know if Adam would appreciate the comparison — he’s cooled on baseball, though, if memory serves, he used to be a pretty devout Expos fan! — but this is exactly what I thought about when I saw Ronald Acuña’s throw against the Yankees Friday night (you can jump ahead to 2:20 if you don’t want to see the whole at-bat).

Here’s what happens: Cody Bellinger hits a super high fly ball to right field. Acuña kind of lopes over to the ball and catches it with his back to the infield, which doesn’t seem like the best way to handle a fly ball, especially with a runner on second. That runner is the joyfully named Jorbit Vivas — and both he and the Yankees third base coach see how casually Acuña is handling the play, so he tags up.

And then Acuña, just as casually as he caught the ball, turns and throws the ball back to the infield.

Or so it appears. Because it turns out the throw is not casual at all. The throw is a little miracle. It is high and strong, and it just keeps going, keeps soaring, over the first cutoff man, over the second cutoff man, all the way to the glove of Atlanta third baseman Nacho Alvarez Jr., who looked entirely surprised to see the ball arrive.*

But not NEARLY as surprised as Jorbit Vivas who was coasting into the base with absolutely no expectation of a throw.

Nacho caught it, plopped the tag on Jorbit, and thus ended one of the most memorable outfield throws of this or any other year.

But here’s the question: Was it a throw for the ages? Or was it a throw for the angels? I don’t think Acuña threw it with any hope of getting the runner — and he wouldn’t have gotten the runner if Vivas had slid or hustled or, frankly, done anything right. If Vivas has just hustled in — he’s not exactly a burner, but he’s a 24-year-old big league second baseman and he should have done way better than that — then Acuña’s throw would have drawn an “ooh” from the crowd, but that would have been the end of it.

Instead, it turned into a key out in a Braves win, and it’s visually one of the coolest plays you’ll ever see.

Let’s call it a throw for the angels.*

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