Aroldis Sticks The Landing

This is Aroldis Chapamn, possibly the hardest throwing left-handed reliever in baseball history, celebrating his first converted save in quite some time.



Now, I kind of love this for many, many reasons.

First, I own Chapman is on my fantasy league team, and the last two weeks have been a very un-fun regression to the mean. If it means he's back on the beam, I don't care if he prances around like an underfed smurf from East Abusistan.

Second, the over the top reaction from the Reds' play by play team is kind of awesome. WHAT IN THE WORLD! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? Um, it's a goofy lefty rolling around on the ground. Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it's all that intense.

Third, you have to think the Brewers are going to get all kinds of bent out of shape from this, and the next game will be good and brawly. It's late June, we've got nothing else to talk about, and the All Star break is a lovely time to serve your joke-tastic MLB suspension. Throw down, gentlemen. HONOR DEMANDS IT.

Fourth, if this is the new level of tasteless closer celebration -- and the fact that this is getting the play that it is proves that, well, yes, it's working -- I can't wait to see what happens next. Can Jose Valverde pull off the backflip and stick the landing? (Doing it off the mound might make it a little easier.) Will Frank Francisco walk like a chicken? Is Jonathan Papelbon ready to treat the third base line like a balance beam and do a walkover to the crab position? I'm the father of a gymnast and just aching for a way to feel better about knowing all of these new terms. Plus, it might be a way to get my kid to start finally caring about baseball!

Fifth and final, if you think that pitchers rolling around is fun, the joy of pitchers rolling around and getting hurt... is just going to get much, much better when some big ball of goo pulls a hammy or catches a spike and hurts himself up nice. It's going to make Bill Gramatica look tame, folks...