Umpire Angel Hernandez caught Andrew Knapp's discarded mask, but was it planned?
Catchers make plays on foul balls all the time. Just as often, they flip off their face masks to improve their vision as they attempt to track down the ball. This is a routine play.
But sometimes mysterious forces intervene to make the routine special. During the fifth inning of the Phillies' 3-2 Thursday afternoon win against the Marlins, umpire Angel Hernandez was that mysterious force.
It's almost as if Phillies' catcher
Knapp, for his part, denies any orchestration with Hernandez:
Not planned but still awesome https://t.co/mnlXPu6wop
— Andrew Knapp (@theknappyboy5) April 28, 2017
If this sequence wasn't planned, this is how Knapp would respond. On the other hand, he would likely respond much the same way if he were trying to cover his tracks. We may never know the sort of backroom dealing that went into this play. The truth will be lost to the myriad great mysteries of baseball. But, this happened. Hernandez caught Knapp's discarded mask. That we know for sure.