Because why not?
With respect to Ceddanne Rafaela’s incredible catch last night against the Royals, I will countenance absolutely no highlight-truthing. Get out of here with your “bad route” takes. I don’t want to hear them.
The kid make a leaping, spinning, backhanded, wall-crashing catch, and I quite literally don’t know if I’ve ever seen each of those four-adjectives applied to one play before. It was incredible and I feel lucky to have seen it. Thanks, universe! You’re alright sometimes!
But was it actually the best play he’s made this year? Yes. it was. But in order to create suspense and enhance the reading experience, pretend you don’t already know that as you revisit his 10 best plays of the year (so far. . .)
10. Jumping wall catch against the A’s
To the best of my recollection, Ceddanne has yet to rob a home run this year. That’s not necessarily his fault, since robbing a home run to center in his home ballpark would require him to wear one of Mark Zuckerberg’s dumb hydrofoil thingees, and MLB weirdly has rules against playing regulation games over bodies of water. So this is as close as he’s come.
9. Dead sprint on Cedric Mullins liner
What he has done plenty of times, though, is make a sprinting, leaping catch that required him to run the equivalent of a middle distance event at the Olympics. Next let’s put some steeple chase-style puddles and hurdles out there to keep things interesting.
8. Diving catch with behind-the-back flip
Ceddanne knows we’ve seen centerfielders make diving catches on soft pop-ups behind the infield before, so he decided to spice this one up with a behind-the-back flip after the fact. Thanks for thinking of us, Ceddy.
7. Leaping liner with style flip.
Sure, this play wouldn’t have looked nearly as impressive if 6’7” O’Neill Cruz was out there instead of our liddle 5’8’’ buddy Ceddanne. But by bringing that up you’re basically body-shaming him. Don’t do that.
6. Long-distance track-down against the A’s
Hey look: it’s another one of those middle distance sprints to the wall. This one quite literally preserved the lead and won the game for the Red Sox, though, which is precisely the reason why we put fielders behind the pitcher the in the first place. He gets bonus points for that.
5. Perfect throw to home
There is absolutely no better place for this ball to be than in the exact spot that Ceddanne puts it here. This throw balanced the universe.
4. Long-distance diving catch in sweet Apple TV 4K
I’m not sure why Ceddanne started this at-bat in the cotton candy line underneath the right field bleachers instead of on the field of play, but I know better than to question his defensive positioning.
3. Diving stab off the pitcher
I don’t know how he was able to merely track this ball, let alone make the play.
2. Superman double play
Diving catches in which the outfielder goes horizontal are likened to Superman. Wall-crawling catches get the Spiderman treatment. Bt what would a Batman catch look like? Something broody and sad with protruding nipples, I guess.
1. The leaping, spinning, backhanded, wall-crashing catch
I have already watched this catch 27 times today and I will be canceling a doctor’s appointment to watch it 27 more times. That’s how good Ceddanne Rafaela is: he’s a danger to public health.