October 4th Has Not Been Kind To Torii Hunter...

By now, even the most casual baseball fan has probably seen the video of Torii Hunter misplaying Mark Kotsay's hit which allowed Kotsay to score an in-the-park home run. While the play seemed odd(at least in hindsight, super slo-mo, 20/20 vision) because Hunter appeared to have no shot at catching the ball before it landed. The truly odd thing was that the same play happened to him on the same date, in the same outfield, against the same team, four years earlier.

On October 4, 2002, the Twins were facing the Athletics in Game 3 of the ALDS. In the first at bat of that game, Oakland's Ray Durham hit the ball to centerfield, and Torii Hunter charged up to make a play. Instead of catching the ball though, he misplayed it, allowing the ball to skip under his glove and roll to the wall. Durham motored around all of the bases, and made it home before A.J. Pierzynski could apply the tag. The play resulted in the first in-the-park home run in Division Series history, and now, four years later to the day, Torii Hunter has been involved in another one.

Hunter Gets Hated On By October 4th(Real Player needed)

On October 4, 2010, Torii might want to consider staying in bed. Seriously.