I don't think it's any sort of secret around here that Jesus Montero is not a particularly graceful runner. He is not fleet of foot. His feet lack fleet and other such quickness. There was a headline on this very website about a month ago, it read "Jesus Montero Almost Knows How To Run" and it was only kind of a joke. But there's reason to believe that Montero is improving. That he might soon know how to run, fully.
I say this because we have some new, tangible evidence to support the claim that Montero may not be the slowest baseball player in the entire league. You see, yesterday, during a real life spring training baseball game, Montero reached base on a broken bat infield single. It's understandable that you wouldn't believe me, but there are people who witnessed the play with their very own eyes and were willing to tell about it:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Broken bat infield single for Montero!</p>— Shannon Drayer (@shannondrayer) <a href="https://twitter.com/shannondrayer/status/316291863780917248">March 25, 2013</a></blockquote>
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I wonder when Montero last reached on an infield single. I wonder if he thought it would ever happen again. There was no video of the game, and so no video of the broken bat infield single. Which is a damn shame, because I would have liked to see it. I would have liked to see where the ball went, and how fast, and who tried to field it. Was there confusion? Did the bat break enough to get in the way? Was it one of those plays that probably should have been called an error, but wasn't because the official scorer has a heart of gold? We're left with more questions than answers, which is sometimes more interesting. Mostly, I would have liked to see Montero running, or almost. His legs striding, his feet pounding, the look on his face as he realized he had a chance, the look on his face after he hit the bag safe. It would have made one hell of a GIF.
Montero ended the day having driven in six runs, including a grand slam that was said to be very well hit. But in many ways those are less notable achievements.
White Hot Internet Update: The intrepid Ryan Divish has recently posted a video of the broken bat infield single, found at the bottom of this post. We now have even further evidence to suggest that Montero might actually know how to run a little bit! The bat does fly into the field of play, and the ball does deflect off the pitchers glove, but I have to say, given the speed with which the ball was retrieved and thrown to first, it's not a hit I would have expected Montero to leg out in the past. How's that for the prejudice of lowered expectations?