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GIF: Clay Buchholz And The Balk Off

In the second inning of the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox game, SP Clay Buchholz tried to pick off SS Sean Rodriguez at first base. Maybe he was trying to one-up Rays pitcher Jeremy Hellickson who had just picked off SS Mike Aviles in the previous half inning, but for whatever reason, Buchholz lost the grip on the ball, and then rest has become GIF history:

Pickoff-fail

(via gif.mocksession.com).

It looks almost like a magic trick, doesn't it? He juggles the ball around in his glove for a moment and then the balls rolls over a ridge of fingers while the arm swings around in a feverish throwing motion. For just the faintest of moments, the ball suspends there in the air. Waiting. Waiting for a moment of glory.

Well, the Rays may not have managed to score the runner, but we all scored some giggles today. And that ball found its moment of glory.

Photographs by cstreet.us, thelastminute, turtlemom nancy , fesek, kthypryn, justinwright, sue_elias, pointnshoot, and scrapstothefuture used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.