On July 27th, 1927, New York Giants 18-year-old rookie Mel Ott hit his first Major League home run at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs. It was an inside-the-park round-tripper. It is the only inside-the-park homer of his 511 career home runs.

I have been thinking lately about how I would rank the following baseball plays from most exciting to least exciting:

• Inside the park homer
• Triple
• Stealing home
• Suicide squeeze
• Grand slam
• Walk-off homer
• Walk-off grand slam
• Walk-off hit of any kind
• Triple play
• Stealing a homer by catching a ball at the outfield fence
• Bunting for a base hit
• A long throw from the outfield to home for an out
• A 1-2-3 punch out ninth inning against a team’s 3-4-5 hitters

When I first started the list, I thought it would be easy to rank them. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that many of the plays are context dependent.

The inside the park home run and the steal of home, would be exciting no matter the score, the opponents, the players, or the situation. They are just exciting plays by definition.

The rest though are dependent on game and situational context.. Striking out the 3-4-5 hitters of a rival team, or a rival team in the playoffs would be much more exciting than the 3-4-5 in a meaningless early May game against a poor team.

During the recent Brewers-Twins series (one of which I attended in person), the Brewers reminded me (yet again) that bunting for a base hit has to be the single most under-appreciated “exciting play” in the game.

Here is a video of just great bunts.

Enjoy!