Jackie Bradley Jr.'s wall-climbing catch is the reverse of Marcell Ozuna's wall-climb failure, and that's totally fine
Baseball, like life in general, is filled with highs and lows -- but if you expected everything to go according to plan all the time, you'd be disappointed quite frequently.
In Friday night's 6-4 win over the Orioles, Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. made a highlight-reel catch by climbing up the wall in dead center field to pull in a would-be extra-base hit from Joey Rickard to end the inning. It was really an astounding, max-effort play:
JBJ is not human. 😱 pic.twitter.com/gz1CwWRzBq
— MLB (@MLB) April 13, 2019
That's the pinnacle of outfielder achievement, at least regarding amazing catches. It's also the polar opposite of this sequence, which happened to Cardinals outfielder Marcell Ozuna earlier in the week.
"See, what had happened was..." - Marcell Ozuna, probably. pic.twitter.com/1pHXLaeDOq
— Cut4 (@Cut4) April 10, 2019
And that's totally fine. Obviously, Ozuna did not intend for this play to unfold the way it did. It was unfortunate, but part of what draws us back to baseball, day after day, season after season, is the hope of things turning out in our favor. It's why the players play the game, too -- they expect to fail more than they succeed.
Remember, a .300 batting average (which is still valued in some circles) means you failed seven times out of 10 trips to the plate.
You're not going to make every stellar play in the field. If you did, you'd be a robot, and robots don't play baseball (yet).
That's why, to sum things up, it's totally fine -- and, really, exemplary of the nature of this sport -- that Bradley made his play and Ozuna did not make his.
It's why they play, and it's why we watch.
Adrian Garro joined MLB.com in 2016. Throughout his travels, both Bartolo Colon and Vin Scully have placed their hands on his shoulders. Not at the same time, though. That'd be amazing.
