Few sports are as steeped in tradition as baseball, and that’s why it really raises some eyebrows when someone comes along and does something wildly untraditional.
Y’know, like what is basically a James Brown split after every strikeout.
That’s why Mets reliever Jefry Yan has got the people talking, and why we here at OutKick reached out to former Big League pitcher Collin Balester to get his perspective on the unorthodox punch-out celebration.
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“I mean, there’s guys that teeter down that line, that do a little celebration here and there,” Balester said, before noting that big celebrations are common in winter leagues in Mexico and Yan’s native Dominican Republic. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy jump ten feet in the air.”
Balester — who played for the Nationals, Tigers and Reds — also noted that a celebration like Yan’s comes with an injury concern.
“At the end of the day, if I was the team, I would be a little nervous about him blowing out his knee jumping up like that,” he said. “Over time, throwing they say is bad, but I think jumping up and landing on your knee like that and doing the moonwalk up the mound, I would probably try to nip that.”
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Which is why he says he was so surprised to see the 29-year-old bring the habit with him to the Majors.
“I said I don’t know when this guy’s getting into the big leagues, but if he gets up there, I guarantee you he’s not going to do it,” he said. “And hey, I mean, to his credit, he’s done it.”
But, of course, hitters aren’t going to look kindly upon someone striking them out and then dropping a Jean-Claude Van Damme split on them for good measure.
“I know the game is a little bit different now; guys are a little bit more obviously pimping home runs and that kind of stuff,” Balester — who played in the Majors between 2008 and 2015 — said. “But at the end of the day, guys are chomping at the bit to try to hit a home run to do something.
And perhaps, they’ll want to do too much, and that could make Yan’s over-the-top celebration his secret weapon.
“I think it’s going to play in his favor, to be honest,” he said. “I think people are going to be trying to do too much at first to make sure they can show him up, but at some point that’s going to kind of falter.
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“Unfortunately, (getting shown up) is what he’s kind of asking for.”