A Strained Analogy Featuring Jose Fernandez and Rick Steves

For 30 years now, writer and public-broadcasting personality Rick Steves has published Europe Through the Back Door, a series of annual guidebooks designed for travelers interested in moving beyond Europe’s most obvious (and expensive) tourist activities and experiencing the continent more like a native might.

One senses from the animated GIFs below — of Jose Fernandez striking out batters to end the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings of his Saturday start, all on curveballs looking — that, were the young Cuban émigré to write a guidebook designed to acquaint readers more intimately with the proper use of a championship breaking ball, that he would likely advocate more of a front-door approach.

One senses, moreover — from the very strained analogy concocted here by the author — that the author in question was content with establishing even the flimsiest of pretenses upon which to publish these animated GIFs of Jose Fernandez striking out batters to end the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings of his Saturday start, all on curveballs looking.

Like this one, to strike out Wilin Rosario:

And this second one, to strike out opposing pitcher Jeff Manship:

And, finally, this third one, to strike out Troy Tulowitzki:

Credit to concerned reader Kevin Smith for bringing this sequence of Important Events to the author’s attention.