Monday, April 11, 2011

Jack Wilson displays fancy footwork on great double play

On the way to losing 22 pounds and learning how to play second base this season, Seattle Mariners infielder Jack Wilson apparently also enhanced his ability to dance.

Wilson sparked an amazing 4-3 double play during Monday night's 6-4 loss to the Rangers with a move that required the best a baseball player can possibly offer in hand-eye-feet coordination.

Watch it here

The Texas Rangers loaded the bases with nobody out in the sixth, and Yorvit Torrealba hit a grounder with a lot of topspin that appeared headed for center field. Wilson, playing second base for only the fourth time of his career, cut across the middle and made an impressive stab and caught the ball with his glove.

Almost simultaneously, Wilson ran past the second base bag and scraped it with his tippy toes. Rather than flip the ball to new shortstop Brendan Ryan, Wilson ran 10-15 feet beyond the bag to set himself, turned in one motion and fired an off-balance and nearly blind strike to first base. Torrealba was out by 10 feet.

From MLB.com:

"I was just trying to get to the ball and everything just fell into place from there," Wilson said. "The bag was just there and I turned and threw. I'm still trying to learn my way around. When I went over for the ball, I didn't know exactly what I was going to do, which is still kind of weird. Usually I know exactly what I'm doing when I go to a ball."

In addition to the video, we also have Wilson's play preserved in animated GIF form, thanks to Jeff Sullivan�at Lookout Landing. It's appropriately Chapman or Keaton-esque in its execution.

Check out ol' twinkletoes around the second base bag.

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