Action GIF: Alex Gordon, Teammates Utilize Air Five

It’s a well-known law — authored originally by Hammurabi and enforced in 49 of the 50 states (frigging Vermont hippies) — that one must, after scoring a run, return to his dugout and high five all present.

Nor’s there generally any reason to enforce said law: run-scoring is the currency of success in baseball, and success, as everyone knows, correlates perfectly with personal happiness.

There are times, however, when one is moved only to fulfill the letter of law — as the above footage reveals.

This past Friday, the Royals scored 12 runs en route to an Official Blowout of the Cleveland Indians. Though undoubtedly pleased by their performance, the Kansas City-ers can be forgiven if — by the time Alex Gordon scored in the very first inning of the very next game against the very same team — if the ritual of the celebratory high five had become commonplace, tedious even.

So it’s no surprise that Gordon and Friends took the opportunity to utilize what is known as the Air Five. The Air Five technically satisfies the most basic obligations of high-five code while also requiring minimum effort/enthusiasm.

In fact, this ought to come as good news for Royals fans: not since May 13th, 1994 — en route to a 16-6 win authored by Mark Gubicza — has the Air Five been spotted in a Royal dugout.