It’s week two of the 2017 regular season and everything in baseball is back to normal. Bryce Harper is at his MVP-calibre best. The Philadelphia Phillies are bottom of the NL East. And Chase Headley leads the Majors in fWAR.
Yes, all is well with the world once more.
Another week of action on the field means another week of hugely entertaining GIFs and here at B&N we’ve saved you the hassle of finding them yourself by compiling our top five right here.
5. Chris Sale strikes out everyone
Chris Sale has been excellent at strikeouts for a while but when you punch out 22 guys in one week you’re giving yourself a pretty good shot at making our list.
The funky left-hander hasn’t received a whole lot of help from Boston’s vaunted offence so far this season but his spectacular numbers belie the 1-1 win-loss record.
4. The Cubs parade the trophy
The 108-diamond rings, the goat on the inside of said ring and the seemingly never-ending ceremony to parade their World Series trophy saw the Cubs as the butt of several social media jokes last week.
But if any team in professional sports has earned a little bit of self-indulgence it’s probably the Loveable Losers from the north side.
It helps to have someone like Anthony Rizzo on your team too, if baseball has a more likeable character then the prodigiously talented first baseman can’t be far off.
3. J.T. Riddle nudges a single for his first professional hit
Comparisons between baseball and cricket are rarely worth making because the sports are so vastly different once you get beyond the ball and bat aspect.
This first hit for Marlins catcher J.T. Riddle, however, could be taken from a village green in the UK. Anxious to get off the mark, he drops one down into the off-side and sets off. Textbook.
2. Michael Martinez blows one by Tim Anderson
We saw our first position player pitching appearance of the young season last week, when Indians utility man Michael Martinez was brought in for mop-up duties in the ninth inning of a 10-4 game.
He induced three ground balls around a two-out double to pitch a scoreless frame, whilst pumping this 78mph heat past the bat of White Sox lead-off man Anderson who must have suffered the scorn of his team-mates on his return to the dugout.
1. The Easter bunny takes out Teddy Roosevelt
I consider the Nationals ‘Presidents Race’ to be one of the more tired ballpark traditions in baseball but every once in a while something like this happens and it absolutely redeems itself.
This bizarre yet entertaining feud is apparently nothing new, but there can be no question about who came out in top in this particular tete-a-tete with glorious slow motion delivering us this magic gif.