You should not try what Billy Hamilton is about to try. It’s unthinkable. It’s ridiculous. It’s like ordering a salad at Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que.



Again, you simply should not try it.



You can tell Hamilton is going to try it, though, because he is watching a fly ball — a fly ball hit by Whit Merrifield merely 332 feet — fall toward the glove of Chicago White Sox right fielder Daniel Palka. Hamilton wants to tag up from first base to second base, probably because he was not able to steal second base in the previous pitches.



So Hamilton watches, and when Palka catches the ball, Hamilton swivels toward second and strides in the way only he and few others can. (Last year, Hamilton’s 30.1-feet-per-second sprint speed ranked fifth in all of Major League Baseball, according to Baseball Savant). Palka launches a throw toward the bag, needing everything of his 6-foot-2, 220-pound frame behind the baseball. Hamilton, whose...