Article: After A Foul Ball That Wasn't, Karma Is A Relaxing Thought

[Josh Illes]

By now, everyone has seen the play that allowed the Cubs to take the lead in the top of the ninth inning against the Texas Rangers in the season opener. It was on a wild pitch, except that it wasn’t a wild pitch because Miles Mastrobuoni swung and got the most fractional foul ball in baseball history.

Image courtesy of © Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The slight graze of the ball off his bat was inaudible, meaning there was almost no way for home plate umpire Chad Fairchild to know it was a foul ball. He, therefore, gave no such signal, and Michael Busch took that as a cue to score from second base as the ball bounded toward the backstop. It was chaotic, and it was almost instantly known that the Cubs had stolen a run. What followed then should not have been surprising, especially for those of us aware that baseball karma is a thing, and this play was begging for that karma to work its magic, which it did in fairly short order.

However, let’s look more closely at the play before we look at the repercussions. The first thing that is obvious immediately after the swing is the reaction of Rangers catcher Jonah Heim, who knew it was a foul ball because the slight redirection prevented him from catching the ball. Mastrobuoni probably also knew it was a foul ball because his bat touched it. Once the slowed-down replay was available, the rest of us knew it was fouled, but in real-time, the only people who knew were Heim and Mastrobuoni. Heim’s reaction caused Rangers pitcher Jose Leclerc to lose track of where he was supposed to be. He got caught watching Heim argue with Fairchild instead of covering the plate. Mastrobuoni had almost zero reaction. Whatever time it took for him to process what was happening must have been measured in milliseconds because he did not indicate that he had fouled the ball. As Leclerc had done with Heim, Busch took his cue from his teammate and took off running. 

It was an exhilarating play to watch in real-time. It was less exhilarating watching the replay and seeing that the run should not have counted. It did count, though, because that is not a reviewable play. For me, and probably for many Cubs fans at the moment, the idea that I should feel bad about some stroke of luck going my way seemed preposterous, though. I’ve been through too much over the years to feel like the scales will be balanced in my favor for as long as I live. Everything from Brant Brown to Seiya Suzuki and everything in between is as much a part of the fabric of my Cubs fandom as Dexter Fowler’s home run to lead off Game 7 of the World Series.

What followed, though, seemed like an inevitability. The Cubs took that one-run lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, where pinch-hitter Travis Jankowski took almost no time blasting a ball into the right field seats to tie the game. The game then went into extra innings, during which some interesting things happened. The Cubs loaded the bases in the top of the tenth inning. The Rangers had decided to intentionally walk Cody Bellinger with a base open to face Christopher Morel. Morel then hit one of the most exciting foul balls in recent memory. I thought it would be fair, as many other folks did, including Rangers pitcher David Robertson, who let out one of the biggest sighs of relief ever when the ball hooked foul at the last second. Robertson then finished the inning unscathed, which set the scene for Heim himself to knock in the winning run in the bottom of the inning. It almost seemed a little too scripted to be believable. Is the catcher who lost the argument with the umpire the same guy who won the game in extra innings? It seems a little too on-the-nose, no? And yet, we all saw it happen.

It was a dream ending of a season opener for the Rangers. It was heartbreak for the Cubs. That’s it. That’s the only takeaway? Well..no, actually. Yes, karma reared its ugly head by the end of the game, but there were some very important and interesting takeaways from the game, more specifically, just from that one play. First of all, Mastrobuoni’s reaction was perfect. Should he have admitted he got a piece of the ball? That is an emphatic NO. Why? Because that’s why we have umpires. It’s their job to call that properly, not the players. This is baseball, not golf. Mastrobuoni played that off like the veteran player he is, something that I think many Cubs fans don’t give him credit for. He is the perfect guy to have on a bench if needed. He’s just going to go in and do his job.

The other Cubs player involved in the play, Michael Busch, did something even more impressive. He was at second base when the swing occurred. He may have even seen the ball get redirected, but his instincts were to trust his teammate and his baseball IQ and sprint home. A ten-year MLB veteran would know to do that, but Busch is not a 10-year vet; he’s a rookie. A rookie playing in his first-ever regular season game with his new organization, no less. These were wily veteran reactions to a complicated play, and even though it ultimately came back to bite them in the end, this is an unbelievably good sign from now on that this Cubs team has some gamers on the roster.

One game does not make a season. Preparedness, good instincts, and a high baseball IQ matter throughout a season. We saw all of these things in the season opener in one weird, wild play. These are the building blocks of a winning team, and I remain as convinced today as I was before the game yesterday that a winning team is what this team will be at the end of the year. This particular dose of karma relaxes me because me and karma vibe like that.

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