It was less like baseball and more like archery practice. Wherever Stephen Piscotty went, he had a bullseye on him.
In a bruising, battering tour around the bases, the St Louis Cardinals outfielder could not stay out of harm’s way. He was hit three times in one inning, as if being tracked by a GPS.
The pounding sequence began in the fifth when he was struck on the right arm by Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arietta. Piscotty shook it off and headed to first. It was only beginning. The ball soon got away from the catcher and Piscotty bolted for second, hit on his left arm by Wilson Contreras’ throw.
Then came a slow roller to second base that Kolten Wong overran. Piscotty rounded third and broke for home. Wong’s throw to the plate nailed him on the helmet. A shaken Piscotty walked to the dugout. He would later pass all concussion tests.
Piscotty majored in atmospheric and energy engineering at Stanford, but even he was puzzled by that inning against the Cubs.
“I’ve never seen that before,” he said. “Crazy.”
Piscotty was not the only Cardinal traveling strange byways last year. A ball somehow stuck to the chest protector of St Louis catcher Yadier Molina, who was asked if a foreign substance were responsible.
“That’s a dumb question,” he said.
This was also a year in which Atlanta Falcons receiver Julio Jones lost a US$100,000 earring while jet skiing, prompting erroneous reports that he hired a dive team to find it.
Olympic champion shooter Michael Diamond of Australia was convicted on firearms charges and his gun license was revoked. Mechanical doping came to the fore in France when an amateur cyclist was caught with a motor on his bike.
A bowler from upstate New York raced from one lane to another and rolled a perfect 300 game in less than 90 seconds. Jerry Bozzo sure beat the odds at Gulfstream Park, becoming the oldest thoroughbred trainer to win a race at 96.
The high hops and unscripted plays came from all over.
ANIMAL MAGNETISM
Shortstop Zack Cozart, then with the Cincinnati Reds, after making the All-Star team received a gift from a teammate that required more upkeep than a watch: a donkey.
Second baseman Rougned Odor was not wowed by his contract offer until Texas sweetened the deal by throwing in two horses.
“I love horses,” he said.
Fans of the top Danish soccer club Brondby threw out the welcome mat for opposing players by throwing dead rats at them.
A New Zealand cricket player tried to convince the court he had good reason for driving after too many drinks — he needed to console his distraught girlfriend over the death of a pet parrot.
ON THE GRID
Olympic gymnast Simone Biles posted a 14-minute video on Twitter of her gauze-filled mouth after her wisdom teeth were removed.
An Indiana high-school student won a bet with his teacher to call off a final exam by getting Kobe Bryant to give him a retweet.
The retired NBA star said: “Hope you have an A in this class.”
Canadian tennis star and model Eugenie Bouchard figured she was on safe ground. With the Falcons way ahead in the Super Bowl, she tweeted that she “knew Atlanta would win.”
A student replied with a dare: If the Patriots win, they go on a date.
Bouchard said sure and New England rallied to win from 25 points down. The two went to a Brooklyn Nets game.
THE BIG SLEEP
A death notice in the Richmond Times-Dispatch for a Patrick “Pat” Killebrew began by saying he “passed away peacefully at home after watching the Washington Nationals relief pitchers blow yet another lead.”
A similar notice in a New Jersey newspaper requested eight Philadelphia Eagles for pallbearers, so the Eagles can “let him down one last time.”
Red Wings enforcer Bob Probert stayed in the penalty box, with some of his ashes scattered there at the hockey team’s last home game at Joe Louis Arena.
A New York City man honored his plumber friend by flushing his ashes down toilets of MLB ballparks. The friend told the New York Times: “This is the perfect tribute to a plumber and baseball fan.”
HONORS CLASS
Theo Epstein, the master builder who helped end title droughts for the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, was No. 1 on Fortune magazine’s list of World’s Greatest Leaders. He was followed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Pope Francis.
However, Epstein did not get carried away, telling ESPN: “Um, I can’t even get my dog to stop peeing in the house.”
LeBron James of the Cavaliers was immortalized by an 3.6kg bust of lint. The Cleveland artist dubbed the work LintBron.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
RSS