Second inning, and Baltimore&#8217;s Felix Pie hit a long fly ball to center field. It wasn&#8217;t an important moment in this game. Well, to be blunt, there weren&#8217;t many important moments Saturday night. It was a low-energy game all the way around.</p><p>The Orioles beat the Royals 3-2. To give you an idea: The Orioles scored the first run on a walk, two stolen bases and a wild pitch. The Orioles scored their third run on a two-out single, a wild pitch and a ground ball that somehow eluded Royals second baseman Alberto Callaspo &#8212; at first it was called an error, later a hit, either way, Callaspo should have at least knocked it down. The Royals did not manage a hit or anything close the last three innings. Some nights in a long season are just like this.</p><p>But back to the second inning, Felix Pie hit a long fly ball to center field. And as soon as he hit it, Royals center fielder Coco Crisp was on the move. He turned, pushed off his right foot, and he was off. For an instant, it looked like it would be a sprint to the wall between Crisp and the ball.</p><p>No. Crisp covered so much ground so quickly, that he was able to actually slow down his last five or six steps. He caught the ball on the warning track, a step in front of the wall, and he made the catch look so easy that nobody even seemed to notice that he had run a long way to make the catch. He jogged in to the run-of-the-mill cheers you hear at the end of innings. It felt routine, which is just the way Coco Crisp wanted to make it feel.</p><p>&#8220;I just want to get them to hit it out there to Coco,&#8221; Royals pitcher Zack Greinke said. It&#8217;s a solid plan.</p><p>&#8226; &#8226; &#8226;</p><p>Funny thing, a couple of years ago in early May, I got an odd e-mail from Boston Red Sox executive and baseball writer extraordinaire Bill James. The Red Sox were on a hot streak &#8212; that was 2007, the year they would win the World Series &#8212; and James found himself in awe of Red Sox center fielder Coco Crisp.</p><p>This was odd because Crisp did not seem to be playing especially well, at least from afar. I mean, he wasn&#8217;t bad, but you wouldn&#8217;t notice him. He had not hit any home runs during the stretch, he was not on some sort of white-hot hitting streak, he had not made any great defensive plays that they showed over and over again on SportsCenter. But Bill insisted that not only was Crisp a part of the Red Sox hot streak, he was actually the <em>biggest reason </em>for the Red Sox hot streak.</p><p>&#8220;Coco has just been unbelievable in center field,&#8221; Bill wrote. &#8220;He&#8217;s just catching <em>everything</em> that looks like it might be trouble. There&#8217;s been no gap in right center, no gap in left center, nothing has been getting over his head and nothing has been landing in front of him. It&#8217;s not that he&#8217;s been making spectacular catches; it&#8217;s that he&#8217;s been making plays that had me scared look like they were no problem.&#8221;</p><p>I should say here that Bill James and I exchange many e-mails &#8230; and it&#8217;s not like him to just effusively praise anyone like that. There was something about watching Coco Crisp play the outfield every day that exhilarated Bill James. And when the Royals traded for Crisp, Bill told me that by watching Crisp play every day, I would soon understand what he meant.</p><p>And &#8230; it&#8217;s true. As this team begins to build its identity, there are certain things I really enjoy. I enjoy the all-or-nothing clarity of slugger Mike Jacobs. I enjoy the way Billy Butler has developed into a decent-enough first baseman. I enjoy the way catcher Miguel Olivo shows off his arm; and I enjoy the way Alberto Callaspo sprays hits all over.