Baseball bizarre

My son and I went to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field in Chicago yesterday, as part our stadium tour. We try to hit a new Major League Baseball venue per year. This year it was Wrigley's turn. It's a great ballpark, one the last two classic baseball stadiums left (the other being Fenway in Boston).

Not only did the Cubs win, a favorite former Tiger of mine (Nick Castellanos) have a great game, going 3-5 with two doubles to increase his MLB lead in that statistical category to 54. Yet more than that: I saw the most bizarre play I've ever seen in baseball. I still shake my head about it this morning. The Cubs' opponents, the Pittsburgh Pirates, botched an appeal play. Rather spectacularly in fact.

For the non-baseball fans out there the quick explanation is that, when the defense believes a runner missed touching a base, they may 'appeal' the play by tossing the ball to a defender, who then touches the base with his foot. If the umpire saw that the runner did indeed miss the base, the runner is ruled out on appeal. Get it?

In this case, the Pirates felt a Cubs runner missed third while scampering home. The pitcher was simply to toss the ball to the third baseman, who would catch it and touch the bag. A simple throw. Just a lob really.

The pitcher proceeded to lob it five feet over the third baseman's head.

A different Cubs runner who occupied third then sped home for another run.

I still can't wrap my head around it. How in the world does a major league player lob, soft toss, a 55 foot throw, clean over the fielder's head? Bear in mind this was from a standing still position; the pitcher wasn't fielding a ball in any way, shape, or form. He was simply standing there. It should have been the easiest play on Earth for him.

Then to make matters worse, the Pirates went on and appealed again. The third base umpire ruled safe, that the original runner, the one in question in the first place, had in fact touched the base en route to home. Talk about salt in the wound: Pittsburgh would have lost the appeal anyway, but gave Chicago a run in the process.

I chuckle incredulously even now. How does that happen at that level of play?