White Sox bullpen catcher raises the bar with effortless barehanded home run catch
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It's barely the middle of May and we've already seen a ton of barehanded home run catches. Most of them have come from dads that happen to be holding small children in their other hand, which is impressive in its own right.
During the Rangers' 6-5 win over the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon, though, Chicago bullpen catcher Adam Ricks kicked things up a notch by not doing anything at all.
When Brett Lawrie smacked a deep drive toward the Rangers' bullpen in left-center, Ricks -- seated on the bullpen bench -- simply raised his hand and palmed the ball. He didn't have to move his body at all (other than raising his left arm), as the careening baseball just steered itself directly into his hand.
Mind control? Just being in the right place at the right time? Or perhaps expert-status directional hitting from Lawrie, who was maybe wearing his special navigational mouth guard?
Whichever method of persuasion Ricks used to coerce the ball to finding him, it worked.
As MLB.com's Scott Merkin noted on Twitter, Ricks is a skilled craftsman with a guitar, something that might explain how easy he made this all look (on account of dexterity and all that):
PSA to all those who will inevitably pull off the next round of barehanded grabs in the stands this season, consider yourself warned: the bar has been raised.