DETROIT
Late Monday night, Eric Hosmer’s cellphone buzzed inside the visitors’ clubhouse here at Comerica Park. A friend back home in south Florida was watching the Olympic Games and witnessed the frantic final seconds of the women’s 400-meter final. He quickly tapped out a message that doubled as an inside joke among friends.
Hey, maybe Hosmer was right.
In the final meters of a race in Rio, sprinter Shaunae Miller had edged American Allyson Felix with a dive across the finish line. The image of Miller, sprawled out parallel to the track, her hands stretched out, was reminiscent of a baseball player sliding head first into a base.