What Baseball’s Wildest Double Play can Teach Financial Advisors About Transitioning

The Play Everyone’s Still Talking About

In Game 1 of the 2025 National League Championship Series, the Dodgers looked ready to break the game open. Bases loaded, one out, Max Muncy at the plate. Then came a 404-foot blast to center [video clip].

Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick leapt at the wall, the ball hit his glove, then the wall, then his glove again. It wasn’t a catch, so runners were forced to advance. But what happened next defied logic.

Frelick fired to shortstop Joey Ortiz, who relayed to catcher William Contreras for the force at home. Contreras then stepped on third to double off Will Smith.

Score it 8-6-2, the first of its kind in postseason history. And officially? A ground-ball double play that never actually touched the ground.

When the Smartest Players Get It Wrong

Here’s what’s remarkable. Everyone on that field was among the best, most disciplined, and most situationally aware athletes in the world. Yet the baserunners froze.

Why? Because their eyes deceived them.

They saw Frelick’s glove move, assumed the ball was caught, and hesitated. In the blink of an eye, perception turned into paralysis.

When information comes flying at 100 miles per hour, especially when it looks familiar, it’s easy to misread it. The runners didn’t make a careless mistake; they made a human one. The game sped up faster than their minds could process it.