From Cubby Blue - Starlin Castro / Tony Campana: Video / Article

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Tony Campana plays in 4-D. Posted: 23 May 2012 07:03 AM PDT I don't have time for an illustration today, sorry. But if you were watching last night's game, you saw a couple plays you just wanna stick in the memory bank forever. First was Starlin Castro's impossible diving stop (Castro Cubs.com vid here) of a ball that was simply past him. No way he gets it. He sort of caught up to it from behind and then you thought um...did I just accidentally blink and miss the part when he stood up, turned around, planted his feet and threw from right field to nail that Astro at first? Because that isn't something that happens in normal life. Goose-bumpy and impossible, that play. And then there was Tony Campana (Cubs.com vid here). He's on first, there's an attempted pickoff, the ball gets past weezy old Carlos Lee, and Tony takes off. Meantime, the ball bounces off something and comes straight back to Lee who throws it to Astro 3rd baseman Matt Downs. Campana is out by 20 feet, maybe more. But what happens next...sometimes I wish the players all had helmet cams, because the view Down's had must have been incredible. Campana running full speed right at him and suddenly, Campana flies. Literally. Takes off. One was reminded of Walter Payton flying over a pile of tacklers. He goes up over the tag, and when I say dives into the ground I mean literally. Like off a diving board - his feet WAY up over his head and he lands...OH CRAP! He lands 4 feet past the bag. Both he and Downs leap at the bag at the same time and Campana wins. Safe. The whole thing looked like something out of The Matrix. Not really where bullets slow down but more like Campana just went into the 4th dimension about halfway to 3rd, and then popped back out 4 feet past the bag. Did the Cubs win? Nah. So we're looking for any little thing that, you know, can make you smile. Happened last night. And Travis Wood, he takes Volstad's place and I don't know. Maybe he really was too nervous before. But he looked a million times better than earlier in the year, and hopefully he turns a negative into a positive. Plus, he almost hit one out. Okay tonight it's Jeff Samardzija vs. Wandy Rodriguez. Please Cubs. Another sweep won't be so good.