Javier Báez gave us another example of why many consider him the most entertaining player in the game.
Right after Anthony Rizzo homered to give the Cubs a six-run lead in Tuesday night's 7-2 victory over the Dodgers at Wrigley Field, Baez tapped a soft ground ball to first baseman David Freese. It looked like an easy out, but Baez hit the brakes, did a juke move to his left to avoid the tag, and dove for the first-base bag to get the single.
"It might have been Butter [third-base coach Brian Butterfield] that compared him to Gale Sayers right there," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. "... It was Javy-esque, Javy-like.
"Pretty entertaining. Again, that's just him playing on a playground in Puerto Rico somewhere and that's what I love about him. There's no fear in his game. He sees things in advance and he's fearless."
Said Baez: "I saw him pretty close to the line and usually on that play you go around like it's a base hit. If I had kept going, I was going to run him over or he was going to run me over, because he's a big dude. I saw the play, I think Billy Hamilton did it a couple of years ago and that was the first thing that came to my mind was to stop and see his reaction. He couldn't stop, he just kept going."