Is Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner's slide the prettiest play in baseball?

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL play in Major League Baseball exists because its practitioner embraced a long-held axiom: Form follows function. Once upon a time, Trea Turner was a habitual head-first slider, his fingers and wrists and shoulders exposed to all the obstacles that exist when a man launches himself toward stationary objects. As he continued to play — and to watch teammates and opponents alike get hurt — he couldn't abide the risk. There had to be a better way, a safer way.

Turner had long studied other experts of the craft, a small fraternity of men who take baserunning every bit as seriously as hitting and glovework. He marveled at Terrance Gore, the stolen-base specialist who would slide at the last possible moment. Perhaps, Turner thought, there was a way to marry his inherent aptitude with a touch of Gore's moxie in a feet-first approach. In 2020, when he was the shortstop for the Washington Nationals, Turner toyed and tinkered until he found something that really worked — and with it, a way to leverage his most elemental skills, this unique amalgamation of a sprinter's speed, a larger man's power, Gumby's flexibility, a mathematician's mind and a cat burglar's daring.

The world did not take notice until Aug. 10, 2021. It was 11 days after the blockbuster trade that sent Turner and Max Scherzer to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Turner stood on second. Will Smith laced a single into right field. Bryce Harper fielded it clearly and unleashed a strong throw home. What happened next was form overshadowing function.

Smooth like butter, pull you in like no other. pic.twitter.com/GlxknGumhQ

About 10 feet from home plate, Turner jumped. His right leg stuck out — he always slides right leg first — and his left leg tucked under his