"When Toronto catcher Alejandro Kirk smashed a ball to center field on May 30, Clarke burst toward the wall, dug his right foot halfway up, braced himself with his right hand and, for a split second, hung on the fence, like an oversized Elf on the Shelf. Perched firmly, Clarke casually stuck his left arm in the air, secured the ball before it breached the fence and returned to the field with one of the highlights of the 2025 season."
"It was the 27th time this year an outfielder had stolen a home run from a hitter. There have been 42 more since. For anyone who has been inundated with seemingly nightly alerts of homers taken away and wondered whether robberies are growing more frequent in 2025, they are. Outfielders are on pace to surpass the record for robberies in a season -- 76, achieved in each of the past two seasons -- and it's not just superathletes like the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Clarke."
Denzel Clarke, a 25-year-old outfielder from near Toronto, idolized Kevin Pillar and practiced robbing home runs as a child. One week after his major league debut with the Athletics, Clarke returned to Rogers Centre and used the center-field wall to take a would-be homer from Alejandro Kirk, producing a standout play of the 2025 season. Outfielders have recorded a rapidly rising number of home-run robberies in 2025 and are on pace to surpass the single-season record of 76. The trend reflects broader changes across baseball and a generation of players making the play look routine. Clarke's athleticism and instincts exemplify a wider adaptation among players responding to game conditions and defensive opportunities.
Read at ESPN.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]