Little League Homers and Improbable Hitting Streaks

On a perfectly absurd July game between the Royals and the Mets.

Hey, look, there’s some super interesting stuff happening in Kansas City.

Hilarious Little League home runs!

The arrival of the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history!

And this is a last-place team having a thoroughly disastrous season.

Sure, I know it’s baseball’s mission to become more like the NFL (or even the NBA) because the NFL is raking in cash. Baseball wants more teams in the playoffs. Baseball wants a salary cap. Baseball wants parity (or at least the appearance of it). Baseball wants to make the draft matter more. On and on and on. And that’s all … fine, I guess. For many years, when baseball was the biggest thing going, the NFL tried to copy everything. That’s just how it works. Sports owners have chased riches since the dawn of time.

But I sure wish that the people who run baseball would remember that one of the great wonders of this sport is that there are so many games and so many possibilities and that every day there’s a chance to see something unforgettable.

The Little League Home run the Royals gave up to the Mets on Tuesday was unforgettable. It was wonderful. New York’s Carson Benge was at the plate. Carson Benge is a 23-year-old rookie from Oklahoma City. He is one of the top prospects in baseball. When your team is bad — and the Mets’ season has been even more disastrous than the Royals’ — you live for the hope that Carson Benge sparks.

Benge hit a dribbler to the left side of the infield. Royals pitcher Seth Lugo, who finished second in the Cy Young voting two years ago and won a Gold Glove, ranged over to the ball, gloved it, and made an off-balance throw to first. It wasn’t a great throw by any means. It bounced about six feet in front of Royals first baseman Jac Caglianone.

Caglianone is a 23-year-old ballplayer from Tampa — he was born twenty days after Benge. The Royals hope he can become one of the best hitters in baseball.

Caglianone was not able to come up with the ball. He probably should have. “Long hop,” said Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez, probably the best defensive first baseman who ever played. “Easy scoop. Easy scoop!”

Anyway, the ball rolled into foul ground. The Mets’ A.J. Ewing came around from second to score. New York’s Bo Bichette headed to third. Benge headed to second. Caglianone ran down the ball, set himself and fired a perfect strike to … absolutely no one. Maybe there was a ghost fielder standing somewhere between third and home that only he could see. The ball bounced away somewhere and Bichette tried to score, and Kansas City’s third baseman Nick Loftin picked it up and fired home, only missed his target by about five feet, the ball zoomed by, and Benge came all the way around for his Little League homer.

“Here comes the circus!” Hernandez would say. “Bring on the dancing bears.”

No offense to circuses or dancing bears, but they are nowhere NEAR as much fun as this was. I have watched this play at least twenty-five times since it happened. It’s so ridiculous and so funny and fills the memory with so many of the hilarious Kansas City Royals catastrophes I got to see when I wrote daily about the team in the mid-2000s.

Oh, that time that center fielder Kerry Robinson went back to the wall, set himself, and leaped to steal the home run … only to see the ball bounce 10 feet in front of him on the warning track and bounce over the wall.

Oh, that time that Chip Ambres and Terrence Long settled under a routine fly ball, looked at each other knowingly, and began the triumphant jog back to the dugout only to forget that one of them had to actually catch it. The ball plopped down on the outfield grass behind them ever so softly — it is one of the five hardest laughs I’ve ever had, right there with the Stonehenge scene in Spinal Tap.

Oh, that time first baseman Ken Harvey charged a ground ball and decided to throw to the plate … pitcher Jason Grimsley happened to be running to cover first base at that exact moment, and the two crossed, passing ships in the night, and Harvey threw the ball directly into Grimsley’s face. I did not laugh at that one because it was so gruesome and a bit scary. I have laughed so many times since knowing that both men were fine.

I hold these memories as dear (more dear?) as I hold the greatest moments, the no-hitters, the Joe Carter home run, the Shohei blasts, Rickey stolen bases.

That’s the beauty of baseball.

This Little League Home Run will infuriate Royals fans, sure. They were already booing manager Matt Quatraro every game. But Royals fans will hold on to it. And someday, years from now, they might be having lunch with friends, and someone will say, “Remember that Carter Benge play?” And everyone will laugh.

But then, to turn joy into delirium, Tyler Tolbert shows up.

Who is Tyler Tolbert? Right question. No idea. He’s a youngish ballplayer from Birmingham, which, you know, Virgil Trucks was from Birmingham. They called him “Fire.” Anyway, the Royals drafted Tyler Tolbert back in 2019 in the thirteenth round and he had been kicking around the minor leagues ever since. He’s blazing fast. He’s a plus-plus runner. Unfortunately, he has a lifetime .246 lifetime minor-league average and a lifetime .359 minor-league slugging percentage.

But, yeah, blazing fast.

The Royals have long been fascinated by players whose games are built almost entirely around blazing speed. I can say some names (Tom Goodwin, Joey Gathright, Jarrod Dyson, Terrance Gore, etc.) — and Royals fans will say, “Oh yeah, that guy was like really fast.” So that’s Tyler Tolbert, too.

On July 4, against the Phillies, Tyler Tolbert came up against Jesús Luzardo in the third inning. He ploofed a little bloop back to the mound — yeah, I said “ploofed,” what of it? — and the ball bounced off Luzardo’s glove and rolled toward third. Base hit!

He promptly stole second base.

Tolbert came up again in the fifth. This time, he lined a clean single between first and second. Base hit! He promptly stole second base.

Tolbert didn’t play on July 5, but the next day he started. His first time up, he rolled a slow grounder to short off Cris Sánchez. He beat Trea Turner’s throw. Base hit! He didn’t have time to steal second because Luke Maile followed up with a homer.

His second time up, he drilled a line drive toward the gap in left-center. It wasn’t hit hard enough to quite get into the gap, but I might have mentioned that he’s blazing fast, so he easily turned into a double. He got picked off trying to steal third.

His third time up, he pulled the ball over the wall in left field for a home run.

That’s five straight hits, if you’re counting, which you should be because we’re only getting started.

His fourth time up, he hit a slower roller to third. Philadelphia’s Alec Bohm scooped it, fired to first and … yep, Tolbert beat it out. Six straight hits.

His fifth time up, he faced position player Garrett Stubbs and, come on, no position player can get out TYLER TOLBERT! Tyler roped a line drive single to center. Seven straight hits. The Royals won 15-1.

And then, on Tuesday, the day of the Little League homer, Tolbert started again.

In the second inning, he pulled ANOTHER home run over the left field wall. This year in the minors, Tolbert hit exactly zero homers. That’s eight straight hits.

Next time up, he looped a single to right — might have broken his bat, it kind of sounded that way. They all count. That’s nine straight hits.

Next time up, fifth inning, he hit a hot grounder toward third, Bichette was able to field it and he made a token throw to first, but he knew, everybody knew, that he had no chance. Base hit! Ten straight!

And we keep going. Sixth inning, Tolbert hit a chopper to third. Bichette knew he had to charge it to have any shot. He charged it but couldn’t come up with the ball. Eleven straight hits! I mean, this is bananas.

And in the seventh, you betcha, Tolbert checked his swing but made contact and slow-rolled it toward shortstop. Statcast™ gives that kind of ball only a five percent chance of becoming a hit. But with Tyler Tolbert, it’s a 100% chance. Lindor didn’t even attempt a throw. And that was his 12th straight hit. And that tied him for the Major League record with two gloriously named ballplayers, Johnny Kling (1902) and Walt Dropo (1952).

Alas, Tolbert’s last time up on Tuesday, he flew out to right, to his co-hero of the day, Carson Benge. But I still think it’s fair to say that Tyler Tolbert is the best player we have ever seen. The bat he used is now in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I love this game so so much. The Royals’ season is, yes, a disaster from a won-loss perspective. They are wasting another incredible season from Bobby Witt Jr. Fans are frustrated. Changes will be made. You know the song. But even inside seasons like this, there is so much happiness to be found. I’m going to go find a Tyler Tolbert jersey right now. Well, actually, no, first I’m going to go watch Benge’s Little League homer. Then I’ll get the jersey.