The art of the swim move: Cubs perfecting the game's most exciting slide

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David Bote stood in front of his locker wearing a shirt that said "El Mago" and depicted Javy Baez deploying his patented "Swim Move" slide on a catcher at home plate.

This was roughly 40 minutes after Bote made a game-saving play Friday afternoon when he fielded a high chopper and threw out Padres infielder Cory Spangenberg at home plate.

Yet Bote — who is a fantastic story in his own right this season — spent more than half of his four-minute session with media talking about Baez and how incredible it is to watch his teammate.

The latest installment of "Javy being Javy" came in Friday's 5-4 victory when Baez homered, threw a guy out at home plate and scored the eventual decisive run when he tripled and pulled off yet another miraculous slide:

When Baez stepped to the plate in the eighth inning, the Cubs were leading 4-2, but looking for some insurance. He dropped the ball into the right field corner and was thinking three all the way, but knew it would be a close play because of the strong arm of Padres right fielder Hunter Renfroe.

So Baez was already mentally preparing for his slide more than 90 feet before he even got there.

That being said, he never actually plans to pull off one of those swim moves.

"I don't know, I just react to it," said Baez, wearing his "El Mago" engraved sandals. "I just switch my hands. I don't know how I do it, to be honest.

"It's baseball instincts and it's reacting to what you're seeing. Like I said, don't plan it, but as soon as I see it, I just react to it."

Baez said as long as he keeps thinking the ball is going to beat him to a bag and can keep pulling the slide off, he's gonna keep it as a weapon in his aresenal.

It's just another instance of "Javy being Javy."

"The homer he hit oppo, the triple, the slide, the swim move, it's everything," Bote said. "Don't take it for granted. Enjoy what he brings to the field every day because it's fun to watch. It's fun to play with."

The slide has become infectious, as Willson Contreras deployed it Thursday night to score the Cubs' only run. 

After the game, the Cubs catcher joked that he's been watching Baez a lot, but also acknowledged he was thinking about sliding around San Diego catcher Austin Hedges as he was coming down the third base line for a close play at the plate.

A lengthy replay confirmed Contreras was safe on the play and in celebration, he turned and hugged Baez in the dugout. You know, since the swim move is Baez's patented slide, after all.

So how does an infielder try to defend against such a slide, especially now that it's becoming more popular around the game and replay challenges help the umpires get the call right on the field?

Baez is one of the game's best taggers, but if he knows how to truly defend against the swim move, he wasn't sharing any trade secrets to try to give his opponents a leg up on how to tag him out in the future.

"We saw it last year with [Dodgers outfielder Yasiel] Puig," Baez said. "I'm ready for both [a regular slide and the swim move] when I'm playing defense. If I go to tag someone and they're not there, I go for the chest."

Baez paused to smile before continuing: 

"But, you know, I'm not trying to tell them what to do when I do [the swim move]."

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