Nothing could make headlines on Tuesday night when the worst team in the American League – the Angels – played the worst team in the National League – the Colorado Rockies.
Outside. . .
This.
The fly ball hit Angels right fielder Jo Adell in the head and bounced over the fence for a home run, reminding fans of a similar gaffe by José Canseco 33 years ago.
Adell chased TJ Rumfield’s fourth-inning home run onto the Angel Stadium warning track and reached up to catch it. The ball grazed his glove before bouncing off his noggin and over the wall.
The ball returned to the infield and Rumfield paused at second base. But the umpires confirmed the home run, including Adell and Canseco in several social media posts.
Canseco, the Texas Rangers left fielder, fueled by steroids, made the same mistake on May 26, 1993, when a ball hit by Cleveland’s Carlos Martínez went off the head and into the wall.
Mike Trout has probably seen every possible blooper, blunder and boo-boo in 16 seasons with the Angels. The midfielder stood a few meters away from Adell when this happened and did not make himself available for comment afterwards.
To her credit, Adell confronted reporters.
“It looks like I’ve never played on the field, which is embarrassing because it’s more than the truth,” he said. “I’m the only one who knows what happened, I was there, and it happened to me, so it is what it is.
“It was kind of the icing on the cake, because I was like that [expletive] all day today.”
Adell went hitless in four at-bats, striking out twice, in an 8-2 loss that dropped the Angels to 23-39, the worst record in the AL.
The game was the highlight of Adell’s seven-year career with the Angels, which made him a first-round pick in 2017. At the start of the disappointment, his lifetime Wins Above Replacement of 0.3 would indicate that he is slightly better than the fictional minor league “replacement player” against which MLB players are compared statistically.
Yet Adell’s portable instruments and occasional highlights scream for popularity. He doesn’t have to be a regular Jo. The reverse of Tuesday night’s embarrassing episode came less than two months ago when he robbed the Seattle Mariners of three home runs in one game.
“It was the Jo Show,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said at the time. “This guy works as hard as anybody I’ve ever been around. His work ethic, his attention to detail, his desire to improve every day. To see him do that, I don’t believe you’ll see that again.”
Suzuki, who partnered with Adell in 2021 and 2022, probably never thought he’d see a fly ball go off the outfielder’s head and into the infield, the Jo Show switching to Oh, No!
“I saw the game, but for me, Jo made some good defensive moves from the time I played with him,” Suzuki said on Tuesday. “And obviously, he had a night where he hit three home runs. It was a tough game tonight, but at the same time, the strides he made defensively were good.”
Adell was considered a liability on defense early in his career and was arrested for a fourth-base error in 2020 when a fly ball hit his glove and landed on the fence. But he gradually improved to become a finalist for the Golden Glove Award in 2024.
That didn’t stop the “Tarps Off” crowd at Angel Stadium from chanting Adell’s name after the rout against the Rockies. Because of him, they’ll be back to begging Angels owner Arte Moreno to “sell the team” soon.
Adell may have to stay away from social media forever, but she would like to forget the ball bouncing around her head as soon as possible.
“That’s what we have to do,” he said. “I mean, there’s really no other way. Let it burn and fall, but these are plays that I’ve done hundreds and thousands of times. I’ve got to keep going, and as a team, we’ve got to keep going.”
