I Salute Griffin Bruns

Baseball, especially of the major league variety, can be boring (pitchers who take almost half a minute between throws to the plate), infuriating (batters intent on blasting home runs, strikeouts be damned) and alienating (Alex Rodriguez, for example, earned $445 million while playing for the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and New York Yankees between 1994 and 2016). But a high school game—one play, to be precise—last week in rural Ohio was enough to rekindle my love for the sport.

Fort Recovery and Marion Local are both located in Mercer County, on the border with Indiana. These two teams met at nearby Coldwater High School for a playoff game. Since my story focuses primarily on Marion Local, I will give some background on it. MLHS, established in 1922, has 286 students drawn from several surrounding communities. They are the sons and daughters of farmers, small business owners, tradesmen and engineers. Academically, it is in the top 20 percent of Ohio high schools, and the Flyers have an impressive athletic tradition: Fourteen state championships in football, four in basketball (boys three, girls one), one in track and field, and five in volleyball. For whatever reason, the blue and gold have not won any titles in baseball.

Fort Recovery had things well in hand. The Indians were up 11-3 with one out in the sixth inning of a seven-inning game. Batting was Caden Grisez, who would go 3-for-4, drive in two runs, score another and strike out seven Marion hitters in 5 ⅓ innings on the mound. I do not know the name of the Marion Local pitcher or any of his teammates, with one major exception. I also cannot ascertain the identity of the other FRHS players, but they had no role in the drama soon to occur on Coldwater’s baseball diamond.

Grisez swung on a pitch, and his aluminum bat made the familiar “dink” noise as he blooped a popup into shallow left-center field. Three Marion Local defenders—the shortstop, the second baseman and center fielder Griffin Bruns, who was about to become part of baseball lore—converged on the ball. It fell in and bounced a few times. While Grisez was motoring between first and second, the shortstop made a weak stab at the ball and missed. Bruns picked it up, looked toward the infield and saw something strange unfolding.

He could not throw the ball to second, limiting Grisez to a stand-up double, because that base had been left open. Grisez made a 90-degree turn and started running toward third since it, too, was empty. The third baseman had inexplicably run to second; he and Grisez passed each other, going in opposite directions. Bruns, who initially had the ball in his right hand, moved it to his gloved left hand and ran toward the infield, picking up speed along the way.

Approaching a vacant third, Grisez appeared not to have noticed his coach holding up his hands, indicating “stop!” He could have played it safe and settled for a triple, but he saw something his coach did not—the Marion Local catcher running up the third base line, rendering home plate free and clear. Grisez, thinking inside-the-park home run, understandably kept going.

Just after he made that final turn, the catcher arrived. In doing so, he made Grisez veer outside of the third base line. Grisez had to pause momentarily, losing crucial time in his race to the plate with Bruns. Three umpires were present for this game, and they should have awarded Grisez his fourth and final base—that is, called him safe at home—because of catcher interference. They screwed up, as did all of the Marion Local infielders. Why hadn’t the pitcher gone and covered third since the third baseman had foolishly wandered over to second? Why, for that matter, didn’t the first baseman go and cover home? The left fielder, had he been on his toes, could have covered third. Had he done so, the catcher would have stayed at home. Since none of Bruns’ teammates had the presence of mind to employ these baseball fundamentals, it came down to a mad dash for the plate.

(You may be wondering why Bruns did not just throw the ball to his catcher—either at home plate or on his way up to third. We cannot be entirely sure since the video of this wild-and-weird, Chinese-fire-drill sequence, which has now been seen by many thousands of people [I’ve watched it no fewer than 50 times], does not show the extent to which the catcher perceived all that was transpiring. Bruns, who had to make a series of quick decisions, may not have trusted the accuracy of his arm or the catcher’s ability to safely receive his throw and tag a streaking Grisez. Maybe he just realized the absurdity of it all and chose to sprint toward home.)  

Amusingly, the Fort Recovery third base coach, whose signal to Grisez to halt had been missed or ignored, now urged him to keep going. Grisez, with a head start over Bruns, turned to his left and saw the Flyers center fielder shift into his highest gear. The crowd of 400 or so could only watch this hotly contested race. With Bruns closing in on him, Grisez dived headfirst for the plate. As he did, however, Bruns dived also and tagged him on the butt. The two tumbled in the dust. With Grisez flat on his stomach, Bruns rolled over and showed the ump that he retained possession of the ball. The ump made the obvious call—out! This, although the Indians players and coaches did their best to influence him with the horizontal “safe” signal.

We should be grateful to Wabash TV for having sent a camera crew to record this game which featured perhaps the first 8-unassisted (using scorekeepers’ jargon) putout at home plate in baseball history. Otherwise, it would not have gotten play on ESPN, Yahoo, the New York Times, MLB.com and other media outlets. This was the all-time, ultimate hustle play, guaranteeing Griffin Bruns some degree of athletic immortality. If the Flyers’ 6′ 0″, 165-pound outfielder had not already drawn the attention of college or pro scouts, he has now. They know—the guy has a set of wheels, and he is very competitive. In fact, he already had a name, having intercepted a pass and returned it 80 yards for a touchdown in Marion Local’s 38-0 defeat of Dalton in the state championship football game last December.

It could not have happened in college baseball, the minors or certainly the majors, as players at those levels would never have fallen into this comical calamity of mistakes, obviating Bruns’ sprint from center field to home plate. The pitcher, catcher, first baseman, second baseman, shortstop and third baseman—and I do believe we can include the left fielder—were either lazy or made bone-headed plays or both. The only blameless MLHS defenders were Bruns and the right fielder, and he was too far from the action to be involved.

It is also worth noting that Bruns’ smarts and willingness to go all out took place in a game that was virtually over. The Indians won 11-3 and moved on to the Division 4 regional semifinals, while the Flyers’ season had come to an end. Whatever he does in the rest of his sporting life, or his life as a whole, he can always remember one amazing, gutsy play he made back in May 2024.

Caden Grisez in football uni…

Bruns makes interception in state title game, runs it back 80 yards to score…

Bruns…