Other than the straight steal of home, the home run robbery is the most exciting play in baseball. The swing of emotions (of fans from both teams) is enough to drive you wild. They occur with enough irregularity and are so difficult to master, that they are just so damn fun to watch.
Gary Mathews, Jr., however, provided us back in 2006 with one of the best home run robberies I’ve ever seen:
I love the announcers call of the catch itself, too: “Finds the wall, times the leap, plants the foot gets extended…My goodness!” Also notable, Jake Lamb had been going for the cycle, in that at bat (he just needed a single). Which means, at least a small part of him thought, “Damn, no cycle, but I’ll take another home … well shit.”
He still had a good day, but one more big one would have sent him to the moon. At least there’s nothing you can do in those situations, besides tip your cap and move on to the next at bat (or you know, run out and hug the center fielder).