The Little Joys of Baseball - 5/25

May 25, 2025

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last LJOB, thanks to work commitments and the like, but I’m back (shout out to long weekends)! Rather than entirely skip the things in the world of baseball that brought me little joys in the past couple of weeks, I’m just going to use this post to combine them all.

Angels’ 8-game win streak

Sadly, this streak ended last night at eight with a 6-2 loss against the Marlins. But, merely a week and a half ago, the Angels found themselves eight games under .500 and staring ahead at a ten-game road trip against the Padres, Dodgers, and A’s. Despite getting to one of the best closers in MLB right now in Robert Saurez in Game 1 of their matchup, they ultimately lost the series to the Padres. They then went on to SWEEP the Dodgers in the first regular season meeting of the Freeway Series, including spoiling Clayton Kershaw’s return to the mound, before heading up to Sacramento to sweep a four-game series vs their divisional opponent, the A’s.

That series gave us some majestic home runs, including this one by third baseman Yoán Moncada and this one by catcher Logan O’Hoppe, which is currently the second-longest home run in MLB this season at 470 ft, just behind teammate Mike Trout’s 484 ft hr from April. The Angels would fire off one more win after returning home against former Cy Young winner Sandy Alcántara to crawl back to .500, sit third in the AL West, and 1.5 games out of a WC spot, before falling in Game 2. It’s the longest win streak since the 2014 team, which won ten straight. Ironically, that was also the last time the Angels made the playoffs.

Nevertheless, after looking like they were dead in the water for a good month, especially with series losses to the Orioles and Pirates at home (and without having to face Paul Skenes), this has been the most exciting stretch of baseball I’d seen from the team in a long while.

La Bestia returns!

Baseball and Braves fans rejoice! After a season-ending ACL injury last season, former MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. finally made his long-awaited return to the field when he made his season debut on Friday night vs. the Padres. Fittingly, he led off the game by hitting a 467-foot home run on the first pitch he saw. The solo blast immediately jumped to the fourth-longest home run hit in MLB this season. Regardless of whether or not you’re a Braves fan, just as a fan of baseball, the game is better with a healthy and productive Ronald Acuña Jr. in it.

Kids these days

Tiny tikes throwing foul balls away after a parent hands it over to them is nothing new. But it was funny to see how it happened not once, but TWICE in one day, and during two different games! The first was during the Red Sox/Orioles game of what was supposed to be the first game of a doubleheader, when this kiddo immediately threw out this foul ball her dad gave her, which landed back into the field of play, behind the home plate umpire. She was visibly upset afterwards. The NESN broadcast noted something needed to be done to make up for the (unbeknownst to her) faux pas. Red Sox mascot Wally came to the rescue (which she was much more excited about) to present her with a Wally plushie.

Later, during the Angels/Marlins game, a kiddo threw a ball back, which unfortunately seemed to hit someone else in the stands (they were ok). I would tell you what happened next, but admittedly, I was half asleep watching this game and apparently have no recollection of where in the game it happened, no official account posted the video of it, and I’ve spent entirely way too much time re-watching the game to find it. You’ll just have to trust me.

We’ve got a…POSITION PLAYER PITCHING

For several seasons, any time a position player came into a game to pitch, the official Cut4 (MLB’s humor and official “meme” accounts) Twitter would always post this sassy emoticon to mark the occasion.

At some point, they simply stopped utilizing it, and there has been a void whenever the situation arises. A few weeks ago, a Threads follower, @nail_icure, mentioned something about it (the official context, I have no idea what it was regarding). I missed those sassy emoticons, too! So, I took matters into my own hands, dug up the tweets, and have since been posting whenever I’m aware of a position player coming in to pitch. So many of you have been delighted by them! Lucky for y’all, they’ve gotten A LOT of use the past week.

I am honored and pleased to continue this tradition moving forward!

Striking out Shohei

Speaking of position players pitching, not much has gone well for the A’s up until this point in the season, despite an initial hot start. But there was a memorable moment for back-up catcher Jhonny Pereda when he took the rubber against the Dodgers and struck out three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani. Pereda threw the ball into the A’s dugout for a keepsake, which Shohei later autographed for him. Pereda joins infielder Kody Clemens as the only two position players to strike Shohei out.

Dodgers go Hollywood

Feels redundant to say that, given the Dodgers are very much synonymous with Hollywood. But can they act? In the fun and sometimes cringeworthy tradition of players and personalities doing local commercials, Teoscar Hernández, Blake Treinen, and Anthony Banda try their hand at it in this ad for Camino Real Chevrolet. My personal favorite is Teo throwing the sunflower seeds with that big smile.

A touching P00P tribute

The classic regular-season P00P match-up between the Phillies and Pirates made its return during MLB’s proclaimed “Rivalry Weekend.” And as had been previously mentioned, with NBCS changing the score bug beginning this season, it meant the beloved feces-inspired bug would be laid to rest (SNP, the Pirates’ broadcast channel, unfortunately, has a stacked scorebug). But that was not before this touching tribute from the Phillies broadcast.

New Red Sox City Connects

The final new City Connects to be unveiled this season came from the Red Sox, and it’s one of my favorites. The “Monstah” inspired jerseys include the yellow and white hand-painted letters and numbers from the scoreboard, including the notches for the numbers, a near Fenway green (it’s extremely close, although not quite exact), and the socks as part of the uniform are marked with a “310”, the precise location of the Green Monster and distance from the left field foul pole to home plate.

As an Angels fan, it is my duty to hate the Red Sox. But as a baseball fan and someone who spent their college years in Boston, who often went to Fenway by way of cheap obstructed view tickets, there’s a special place in my heart for these.

These guys are a catch…

During the Red Sox’s series in Detroit, outfielders Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela had an untraditional home run robbery, when this would-be home run hit by Tigers’ Kerry Carpenter came out of Abreu’s glove but went right into the direction of Rafaela’s bare hand to complete the out. Even they couldn’t believe it happened.

The catch preserved the tie for the time being. The Red Sox ultimately lost 6-5.

The Phillies, who are on their own nine-game winning streak, got this INCREDIBLE catch from CF Johan Rojas off the bat of A’s 1B Tyler Soderstrom to keep their lead intact, ultimately securing their (at the time) eighth-straight win.

Meanwhile, Mets outfielders Juan Soto and Tyrone Tyler experienced a situation vs the Dodgers Friday night that involved them colliding (both were ok) after a Mookie Betts flyball, but with Taylor juggling to make the catch.

The Dodgers’ runners on base tagged up with Michael Conforto going to third and Shohei Ohtani to second. The Mets challenged this, citing that Conforto left early. The call stood—he was safe. Per the MLB rulebook, a runner can tag up from the base as soon as the ball is touched. The explanation makes sense as it prevents fielders from purposely misplaying a ball to stop runners from tagging up, et al. But while many were quick to tell me this rule has “always been this way”, numerous beat writers, broadcasters, coaches, and even players (aka people who have worked and watched baseball even longer than I have) were seemingly UNAWARE about the specificity of the “first-touch” nature of the rule.

But that’s the beauty of the game, right? You could have grown up watching it your whole life, you could have been working in the sport for decades, and there’s still always room to learn something new.

One last thing…

Omar Zahran from Deep Cover Podcast was kind enough to have me on the pod again to discuss Commissioner Rob Manfred removing Pete Rose’s lifetime ban, Rose’s likelihood to make the Hall, Hall of Fame voters’ approach to the steroid era players in the wake of his reinstatement, and general thoughts about betting and sports leagues. Take a listen here if you’d like.

That’s all for now, stay tuned until next week to see what little joys baseball brings me!