On Friday night, Byron Buxton hit an inside-the-park homer. It took him just 13.85 seconds to round the bases, a record in the Statcast system (since 2015).
The win moved the Twins to 61-59, a record good enough to be the second Wild Card leader. The Angels (62-60), Royals (61-60), Mariners (62-61), Rangers (60-61), Orioles (60-62), Rays (60-64), and Blue Jays (59-63) are all within three games, though. The last six weeks are going to be a wild ride.
Back to inside-the-park homers. I wanted to look at a few of my favorites to see how their times matched up. First up, Paul and I from last August. Buxton just barely beat us.
Javy Baez is next. This one happened on our trip to San Francisco. My unofficial time has it at 15.91 seconds.
Griffey had lost most of his speed by 2001. I had this one at 16.01. Still one of his best moments as a Red.
One year ago today. One of my favorite baseball highlights from the past few years. Tyler Naquin was moving: 15.58 seconds.
Alcides Escobar's inside-the-parker to lead off the 2015 World Series was the first to happen in the World Series in over 60 years. My count had it at 14.80.
Baseball is here! And more importantly, that means the over/under game is back. It seems as though everyone is an expert this time of year. Somehow we convince ourselves that we are better at predicting baseball outcomes than everyone else. Well, AFITB is putting that to the test for the third year in a row. Think you know more about baseball than us? You probably do. But go ahead and prove it anyway.