Major League Baseball has gone to great lengths over the past few years to eliminate home plate collisions between base runners and catchers. But young Devon Avedessian needed no help in avoiding both a collision and the tag at home plate in a recent U-11 tournament in San Marcos, Texas.Avedessian broke for home from third base on a passed ball, and was clearly beaten to the plate by the catcher. But instead of trucking him—which is probably illegal in youth baseball, or probably should be—or sliding around the tag, he leaped over the catcher's outstretched glove, landing squarely and safely, on home plate. Then he dusted himself off and trotted casually back to the dugout while his opponents stared at each other baffled, and their coach yelled, as only a coach can, "GO TAG HIM."
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One wonders if the night before this game, Avedessian happened to catch the cinematic masterpiece Major League 2, in which Willie Mays Hayes—played by Omar Epps in this one, as opposed to Wesley Snipes—avoids villainous White Sox catcher Jack Parkman by leaping over him at home plate:Also, if you found this scene captivating, you may watch the entirety of Major League 2, featuring Willie Mays Hayes, Rick Vaughn, Jake Taylor, Pedro Cerrano, and the gang here, via YouTube:
h/t Prep Rally