There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this six-second clip of Cubs star Javy Baez turning on a batting practice fastball and depositing it far beyond the left-field fence. It’s the type of thing that happens in countless ballparks during the spring, summer, and fall. And yet, something about it speaks to us, a nation hoping to shake off the ice and snow of a long winter and bask in the warm light of the American pastime.
It’s just so beautiful and simple-minded people like myself can’t help but feel like a blubbering Daniel Ruettiger upon seeing Notre Dame for the first time. This is a muse, the siren sound of warm weather and casual evenings spent watching one inning bleed into the next with no stakes and no timeframe.
The combination of raw power and effortless fluidity is moving, the baseball version of floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee. The crack of the bat — deafening in its authority — is arresting.
There are few things as glorious and pure as a perfectly struck baseball. In fact, someone could make big bucks incorporating them into an ASMR experience. That’s a free idea, go ahead and run with it. Anything to bring joy and happiness to the masses.
