John Baker is either the greatest tactician in baseball or a Jedi Master

Bill Center recounts a very remarkable story about John Baker. Remember the ridiculous Mark Ellis play from last night? Ellis, for no good reason, decided to run into the second out of a double play at home after a slow grounder was fielded by Luke Gregerson and Ellis was looked back to third base.

What could cause somebody to do something so far out of the realm of reasonable thinking?

Our answer is John Baker.

According to Gregerson, Baker’s exact words were: "Throw a slider low and away. He’ll bounce it back to you. Look back the runner at third before you throw to first. If (A.J.) Ellis tries to score we’ll get him at the plate and we’re out of the inning."

Bill Center considers this a bit of prognostication. Baker himself says he just tried to "reinforce a positive". I'm calling it the power of a Jedi mind trick. Obviously, he can't predict the future, but he can apparently will people into doing his bidding, assuming that we're talking about people on and about a baseball diamond.

Or maybe John Baker is just really good at figuring out what will happen next in a baseball game. I see great things for him as he continues his path to either becoming the greatest baseball manager in history and/or Luke Skywalker.