Baseball lives in that sweet spot where preparation meets chaos. For all the spray charts and defensive shifts, the game’s most legendary moments arrive when someone does something seemingly impossible. These aren’t just highlights—they’re violations of what we thought human beings could do on a baseball field.
Each required split-second decisions under stadium lights, often with seasons hanging in the balance. They remind us why we keep watching through rain delays and pitching changes: because occasionally, something happens that makes you question whether you actually saw what you just saw.
9. Willie Mays’ “The Catch”
The 1954 World Series, Game 1. The Giants and Indians deadlocked. Vic Wertz crushes a ball to deepest center field, and Mays took off like someone had fired a starting pistol, covering 260 feet with his back to home plate.
The ball settled into his glove just as his cap flew off, followed by a cannon throw preventing runners from advancing. The play altered baseball’s gravitational rules. Before Mays, that ball was uncatchable. After him, every centerfielder had a new standard to chase, like musicians after Hendrix wondering if they should bother picking up a guitar.
8. Ozzie Smith’s 1978 Barehanded Play
In 1978, before earning his “Wizard” nickname, Smith ranged deep into the hole and realized a conventional play was impossible. He nabbed the ball barehanded, then threw across his body while falling away from first base.
The ball arrived on a direct line, beating the runner by half a step. It’s like watching someone solve a complex math equation while falling out of an airplane. Smith himself has called it his finest defensive moment. The play’s impact on win probability doesn’t capture its true value—Smith had recalibrated what counted as “possible” for a shortstop, transforming infield play into performance art.
7. Yoenis Céspedes’ Greatest Throw
June 2014. Angel Stadium. Céspedes misplayed Trout’s double, and Kendrick was rounding third with what should have been an easy run. Then baseball witnessed something extraordinary.
From 300+ feet away, Céspedes unleashed a throw that never touched the ground—a flat missile that reached third base on the fly, beating Kendrick by two steps. Angels manager Mike Scioscia called it a “guided missile.” The stadium went silent as everyone processed what they’d witnessed. The throw, estimated at 109 mph, became coaches’ “this is technically possible” example when teaching young outfielders.
6. Derek Jeter’s Amazing Play
The 2001 ALDS. Yankees up 1-0. Seventh inning. The cutoff throw sailed past both designed cutoff men, and the tying run appeared inevitable until Jeter—who had no business being there—scooped the ball and flipped it backhand to Posada.
The ball arrived a nanosecond before Giambi, who inexplicably didn’t slide. The play demonstrated Jeter’s sixth sense for baseball positioning—like a chess master who sees twelve moves ahead. Defensive metrics never captured Jeter’s true value because they couldn’t quantify “appears exactly where needed when standard positioning fails.”
5. Turner Ward’s Wall Crash Catch
Pittsburgh, 1998. Pirates vs. Astros. Ward tracked a deep fly ball toward the right field wall, leapt at the perfect moment, and secured the catch. Then momentum sent him crashing through the padded wall, disappearing entirely.
Seconds later—still gripping the ball—he emerged from the wreckage and fired it back to the infield. “Well, I sure feel like I hit a wall, but I think I’m in better shape than that wall is,” Ward quipped afterward. While modern ballparks have sturdier barriers, Ward’s play remains the gold standard for defensive commitment—baseball’s version of walking away from an explosion without looking back.
4. Javier Baez Steals a Run
May 2021. Pirates vs. Cubs. Two outs, runner on second. Baez hits a routine grounder to third. Game over? Not quite.
When the first baseman abandoned the bag to chase Baez, chaos erupted. Baez retreated, extended the rundown long enough for Contreras to score from second, then somehow reached second base safely on the same play. The Pirates looked like they were trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube while riding a unicycle. This wasn’t athletic brilliance—it was processing power. Baez saw opportunities within the game’s rules that everyone else missed.
3. Chris Coghlan’s Leap Over Molina
October 2016. NLCS Game 7. Blue Jays vs. Indians. With Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina blocking the plate, Chris Coghlan chose flight over fight—literally.
Approaching home at full speed, Coghlan launched himself into a full somersault over Molina, somehow touching the plate with his hand as he sailed overhead. The acrobatic move stunned everyone in Busch Stadium. Even hardened baseball writers dropped their professional detachment to marvel. Coaches still don’t teach the technique—because they value their players’ necks—but the moment reminds us that sometimes the rulebook doesn’t cover every possible solution.
2. Kevin Kiermaier’s Wall-Climbing Catch
August 2015. Tropicana Field. Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier tracked a deep drive off the bat of Manny Machado, timing his leap perfectly at the wall.
As his momentum carried him toward and over the outfield fence, Kiermaier somehow maintained control of the ball through a complete flip. The crowd reacted like 40,000 people simultaneously winning the lottery. Beyond rulebook debates about what constitutes a catch, the play demonstrated the impossible athletics hiding within baseball’s framework—those moments when players briefly transform into superheroes.
1. Anthony Rendon’s Left-Handed Homerun
During a 2022 blowout against Tampa Bay, third baseman Anthony Rendon decided to try something ridiculous—batting left-handed despite being exclusively right-handed his entire career.
With pressure released in the lopsided game, Rendon awkwardly settled into the lefty box, looking like someone trying to write with their non-dominant hand. Then—CRACK—he connected perfectly. The ball sailed over the right field wall as the Angels dugout dissolved into laughter. In a sport obsessed with optimization, Rendon’s homer reminded us that baseball, at its core, remains a game.
