The universal designated hitter has rendered pitchers at the plate and, if they’re good enough, on the basepaths virtually extinct. That makes moments like this extra special—not like it wasn’t special before.

There was a time in which even the best left-handed major leagues found excuses to avoid facing Randy Johnson. Dae-Sung Koo, though, had no fear. Or he simply didn’t know any better. Whatever the reason, the 35-year-old Mets relief pitcher stepped into the batters’ box from the left side. He defied conventional wisdom and lightened the wallet of Mike Piazza who allegedly said he’d donate to charity if Koo somehow managed a hit.

Tim McCarver said on the FOX broadcast what we were all thinking:

“This is the biggest give-up at-bat.”

An instant after those words were stated, Koo connected. Not just contact, but to deep center field. It went well out of the reach of Bernie Williams and Koo ended up with a double to the incredible joy of David Wright, among others.

Some 55,800 at Shea Stadium had witnessed a miracle of sorts. But we were only halfway through. José Reyes bunted, seemingly to advance Koo 90 feet. With Yankees catcher Jorge Posada lingering a bit from the plate, Koo (wearing a jacket and still having a weighted ball in his pocket, which only adds to the zaniness quotient) broke for home. Showing baserunning intrepidness not seen in ages, he dove head-first to try and avoid Posada’s tag. Did Posada get him in time? Umpire Chuck Meriwether said no. So we’ll leave it at that.

“I think he made the right call,” Koo said. “If he said ‘Safe,’ then I’m safe.”

Words don’t do it justice. It must be seen to be believed. Even if you’ve seen it, and still don’t believe it, you’ll certainly want to see it again.

It’s significant when any lefty got a hit off Johnson, much less a pitcher.

According to a 2020 article from MLB.com, there were 534 plate appearances by pitchers against Johnson in his career — 261 of them ended in strikeouts. Only 11 ended in an extra-base hit. And Koo was one of only two left-handed swinging pitchers ever to double off the Hall-of-Famer.

The improbability level goes 100-fold when you throw in the baserunning. Rarely do you see any runner scoring from second on a bunt without the help of an error. That same MLB.com article cited 4,915 successful sacrifice bunts with a man on second from 2000-19. Just six times did that runner score without an error. And none were pitchers.

Koo’s Mets career, and his major league career for that matter, only lasted one season. He made 33 appearances with a 3.91 ERA. But with all due respect, those pitching numbers are otherwise irrelevant. What he did on May 21, 2005 made him an instant and permanent Mets legend. Maybe we’ll see it reenacted at an Old Timers’ Day soon.