Tonight, Yu Darvish will face the Chicago White Sox. To celebrate, here are three Japanese umpires getting way too excited about Darvish strikeouts.
Umpires – They’re Just Like Us !
Tag Archives: gifs
Bad Baseball Pun of the Day: R.A. Dickey Is Not Magical Anymore :(
This is a .gif of R.A. Dickey giving up a home run to Brennan Boesch. Brennan Boesch is terrible at major league baseball. R.A. Dickey is supposed to be not terrible at major league baseball. What happened ?
Now he’s just somebody traded for d’Arnaud.
(I’ll be here all week)
.gifs From Last Night: Silly Mike Baxter
Mets-Phillies
- Good thing the Mets have two other all-star level outfielders to make up for plays like this…
- To be fair, if there was a giant rawhide sphere barreling through the air in my direction, I would get the hell out of the way too.
- That’s a lot of advertising concentrated in one specific corner of Citi Field. I count 5. Do you?
- I like how Baxter turns and is briefly immersed in the possibilities of freecreditscore.com before he realizes the ball is about to drop.
- It also looks like baseball Jesus just dropped the ball out of the sky because the trajectory of the ball looks like something from Angels in the Outfield.
- Is that trash on the warning track? Get your shit together, Citi Field.
.gifs From Last Night: Unorthodox Deliveries
Angels-Mariners
Last night in Seattle, Carlos Peguero hit a ball 450 feet to dead center. Somehow, this wasn’t the most extraordinary thing that happened at Safeco that evening. In one fell swoop, Angels right-hander (left-hander?) Garrett Richards revolutionized the art of pitching.
In the potentially groundbreaking .gif above, we see Mariners designated “hitter” Justin Smoak making his way to the plate. Is he trying to gain momentum by running towards the plate a la Happy Gilmore or is something even deeper going on here?
For whatever reason, Richards begins slightly offset to the left of the mound. His delivery begins with the ball in his glove, as most deliveries do. However, Richards has the glove raised and pointing towards first base. He drops his glove cautiously as if he’s catching a very delicate egg, and proceeds to whip his arm around and release the ball with stunning accuracy. This motion clearly does not allow Richards to take advantage of about 93% of his body, as his right side is just along for the ride and doesn’t play much part in delivering the ball to the catcher. There is an unusual amount of movement in the lower half that includes several steps backward to help Richards make sure he’s still on the rubber. Let’s slow it down.
This .gif allows us to see the incredible conclusion of this play. Smoak, in all his glory, turns on the circus pitch and rips it right back to the pitcher. Richards, who is already pointing at the plate as if he’s prepared for a comebacker, snags the ball with his bare hand. The sheer velocity of the ball propels him backwards, returning him back to a more familiar position at the top of the mound.
Mechanics Report Card
We’re gonna keep an eye out for this mystery of a motion throughout the season, but we doubt we’ll see it again any time soon. For one wondrous moment, Garrett Richards changed baseball. We hope it’s not the last time.
A Brief Examination of Death By Yu Darvish
私はいじめっ子です
As if the Internet hasn’t freaked out about Yu Darvish enough over the last 24 hours, I’m back to take a look at two of Darvish’s victims from his days in Japan. Since half the world’s population has already seen this .gif (as they should), I’ve decided to take a different route.
When Darvish came over last year, we all scurried to our computers or mobile devices to watch some video of the half Japanese, half Iranian freak show of awesomeness. It did not disappoint. While scouring said video, I came across two strikeout victims of Darvish’s that stood out to me. Let’s take a look.
VICTIM 1:
Darvish unleashes a true 80-grade slider to an innocent batter who simply collapses while attempting to make contact. This is a batter that probably has a wife and kids. Those beloved assumed family members had to watch him fall victim to this torturous sin of a pitch. His back leg straight up dies on him and then the rest of his embarrassed body goes down with it. I enjoy the catcher receiving the pitch and then turning away as if to avoid looking at the dumbfounded batter…or he got hit in the nuts. I can’t really tell. Anyway, I love this. But it’s not nearly as awesome as this next one.
VICTIM 2:
Darvish throws a 90 MPH fastball Up and In and the batter swings, quite literally, for his life. The fact that it wasn’t actually that close to his head makes this even better. Let’s just imagine the thoughts of each human being involved in this beautiful sequence.
- Darvish: Okay, he wants up and in. I can do that.
- Catcher: Up and in, Yu. Right here.
- Batter: oh my god oh my god oh my god what am I gonna do
- Umpire: how the hell am I supposed to call this guy
- Darvish: *goes into windup*
- Batter: okay man you got this just go into your leg kick and
- Darvish: *releases ball*
- Batter: DEAR GOD WHAT THE SHIT *swings* *dies*
- Catcher: *catches pitch* whoops
- Umpire: uhhh is he breathing
- Darvish: *sheepishly touches back of head* hehe I’m Yu Darvish
- Batter: *is still dead*
***
Daily Darvish. Get some.
CESPEDES FAMILY BARBECUE 