Hanley Ramirez flips his bat after a bloop single just because
It seems that we’re entering a period in baseball where there’s no bad time for a bat flip. You don’t have to wait to hit a go-ahead three-run home run in the postseason to unleash a bat flip, you can do it anytime.
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The latest bat flip for us to admire comes from Boston Red Sox designated hitter Hanley Ramirez. The Red Sox were facing the Kansas City Royals, and with Boston up 4-2 in the eighth inning, Ramirez came to the plate with one out. With Royals reliever Mike Minor hurling on the mound, Hanley stroked a floating bloop single to right field.
And once he hit the ball, Ramirez let go of the bat and flipped it. It went end over end a few times before hitting the ground, a gorgeous, helicoptering bat flip that could be taught in a class. (A bat-flipping class sounds pretty incredible.)
The flip didn’t come at the end of a long at-bat, because Hanley hit that bloop single on the fourth pitch he saw. He doesn’t have a contentious relationship with the reliever he was facing. And he didn’t flip it because it was his first hit of the night (it was his second). In fact, when Hanley flipped that bat, he may not even have known the ball would fall in. When the ball left the bat it had some air under it, and it ended up being just out of reach of one of the Royals’ infielders.
No matter why he flipped his bat, whether it was out of frustration, celebration, or just because, it was a good-looking bat flip. If Hanley’s bored during the offseason, he should consider teaching that bat-flipping class. He’d have a lot of eager students.
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Liz Roscher is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at lizroscher@yahoo.com or follow her on twitter! Follow @lizroscher
