2017 Quirks: Basepath chaos, donkey gift, sunken earring
It was less like baseball and more like archery practice. And wherever Stephen Piscotty went he had a bull’s- eye 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, since traded to Oakland in the offseason, 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 in 2017. 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 $100,000 earring while jet skiing, prompting erroneous reports that he hired a dive team to find it. (“I did not do that. It was insured.”).
Synchronized swimming changed its name to artistic swimming. Olympic champion shooter Michael Diamond of Australia was convicted on firearms charges, and his gun license was revoked.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. The Saint Louis University basketball team was left waiting for its bus after a game at St. Bonaventure because the driver was some 40 miles away and soon to be charged with drunken driving. And 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, made the All- Star team, and with it came a gift from teammate Joey Votto 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 con- vince 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.
DOUBLE FAULTS: World- weary Australian star Bernard Tomic bemoaned that Wimbledon provides insufficient motivation: “I felt a little bit bored to be completely honest with you.” . Romania’s Ilie Nastase, banned by international tennis authorities for his profane outburst and general boorishness during the Fed Cup, was given a new assignment — diplomat for the Czech Republic. . The fashion police at all-white Wimbledon were ever vigilant, ordering some junior boys players to change their resplendently colored underwear. Venus Williams, when questioned about the flash of pink beneath her dress, said: “I don’t like talking about bras at press conferences. It’s weird.”