The Stupidest Play I Have Ever Seen (or, League Division Series, Day 2).

Yankees vs. Tigers - Rained out.

A's go up on the Twins 2-0 after Torii Hunter tried to showboat and dive for a line drive but instead looks like he was trying for an ESPN highlight reel instead of actually fielding the ball, and Mark Kotsay turned what should have been a single into an inside-the-park home run took the wind out of Minnesota (though Kotsay was the one with the oxygen mask after returning to the dugout.)

But Torii Hunter can thank the Baseball Gods for the Dodgers tonight, as they made a play and blew game 1 against the Mets with the STUPIDEST play I've ever seen.

I wish I had the words to describe it, but even in retrospect I still have the same reaction as when I watched it live on ESPN this evening: Slack-jawed disbelief. You can read about the play in this article at SI.com, the important text of which is pasted below:

"If you want to get real literal about it, the turning point came when the Dodgers' J.D. Drew rounded third in the second inning. The wacky double play, with two Dodgers being tagged out at the plate on the same Martin single, began with a fly off the base of the rightfield wall that Kent, on second base, failed to read well in the late afternoon shadow of Shea Stadium. Drew, on first, had no such problem and took off like a shot following Kent by about 50 feet, like a 400-meter runner who is intent on making has up the stagger while rounding the curve. Shawn Green's relay to Jose Valentin was money, and Valentin wheeled and threw to the plate to nab the flummoxed Kent easily. While catcher Paul Lo Duca turned his back to display the ball to umpire John Hirschbeck, a little Statue of Liberty set-piece theatrics, Drew put his head down and kept steaming home. Lo Duca heard some of his teammates yelling spun and -- voila, Christmas morning. (Sometimes the outs just come to you, you don't have to go chasing the outs. Ohm.) This might be the only 9-4-2 double play on something other than a fly ball that you will see in your lifetime -- although something similar did occur to the Yankees in a 1985 in which Carlton Fisk tagged out a pair of runners at the plate. The Dodgers would have four straight hits in the inning, and later added a walk, and come away with one run."

As I saw it, it was piss-poor baserunning by Jeff Kent, as he was about 20 feet from home plate when Lo Duca got the throw. Then, three seconds later, Drew comes in after Kent. My brain could not come up with a plausible reason why Drew would CONTINUE to home plate after Kent was out by a a few kilometers, but nonetheless J.D. Drew tried to score.

After a few seconds of being absolutely dumbfounded, I woke up and realized that the Dodgers have quite stupidest 3rd base coach in the entire world. Either that, or the least respected. Because that coach either waved them both home, or they both ignored him.

It goes without saying that the next Dodger at bat hit a single that would have scored either Kent or both Kent AND Drew.

And that the Dodgers lost the game, 6-5.

It's plays like this that make me love playoff baseball all the more!

And make me realize that I am probably overqualified to be a 3rd base coach in the Major Leagues, as I am not legally blind in either eye nor am I mildly retarded.