Based on the above evidence, I think it’s safe to say that Lawrie is, in fact, Big Blue.

This one comes to us via the fine, hard-working Canadian folks at theScore’s Getting Blanked, and I love it for a number of reasons:

1. The camera angle is perfect. I mean, just perfect. Watching Ron Gardenhire watch it all go so wrong is so very pleasing.
2. This is what deserves to happen when you try to bunt in a run. God is great, sometimes.
3. It has everything to do with the Toronto Blue Jays, which means I had no choice, really, but to post it. Sorry, Chairman Cistulli.
4. It’s a pleasant reminder that the days of watching Edwin Encarnacion at the hot corner are long gone, never to return. Brett Lawrie is very, very good. (And only 22!) Not many guys make that play. Seriously, just imagine how Enarnacion — God love him — would have butchered that play.

H/Ts: @BlueJaysChirps, for putting the video together. And follow @GettingBlanked. Do it. Please?

Before the existence of the NotGraphs Investigative Reporting Investigation Team, what happened in the Texas Rangers dugout, stayed in the Texas Rangers dugout. No more.

Joe Nathan: You nasty.

H/T: DAILY DOSE OF BASEBALL. Yes, in all caps.

Off an arm, off one very unlucky sonofabitch’s, uh, you know what, and into a poor woman’s unsuspecting face. I mean, seriously, what are the odds? Helluva journey for that baseball. I hope some kid ended up with it. I believe in happy endings.

The woman, when reached for comment by the NotGraphs Investigative Reporting Investigation Team this morning, had only this to say, by email:

“No glove, no love.”

Indeed.

Addendum: It’s come to my attention that this was actually a Brandon Inge home run. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Except that the title was wrong, so I’ve changed it.

H/T: Reddit user jeanpaulfartre.

Over the weekend, Mark Reynolds had six hits in 11 official at-bats. Three of those hits were doubles. Two of them were home runs. Reynolds scored four runs, and drove in six, in Baltimore’s sweep of Boston. He even stole a base. Perhaps most unbelievable of all, Reynolds struck out only twice, while walking five times. Mark Reynolds. Walked five times. Four times in one game, actually. Sure, the game lasted 17 innings, but, you say “w-O-B-A,” pronouncing each and every letter distinctly, while I say “wOBA,” pronounced “Whoa-bah.” The point is: Reynolds walked five times. And three of those four walks on Sunday came in the game’s first six innings. Let’s be honest: The Red Sox deserve to be in last place.

But Reynolds’ finest accomplishment of the weekend came Friday night, when, after his third inning solo home run off of Jon Lester, he left his manager, the inspiring Buck Showalter, hanging. GIF of the year. No doubt about it.

Now, we were going to send in our award-winning Investigative Reporting Investigation Team to, you know, investigate, until I realized that The Baltimore Sun’s Investigative Reporting Investigation Team — yes, they’ve got one too — was already all over the story.

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A confession: I’m a user. Been using for years. Since high school, actually, the summer after grade nine, in 1997. I even let my friends use it.

I bought the “Perfect Curve” from a Lids store in Manhattan, for something like five, or maybe 10, American dollars, back when American dollars were actually worth something. Truthfully, I don’t remember how much it cost. It didn’t matter then, and it doesn’t matter now. After using it once, leaving my hat it in it overnight, I was hooked. On the Amtrak back home to Toronto with my brother, my gloriously curved cap on my head, I overheard a kid a few seats up from me, looking back in my direction, tell his – presumably – brother, “Wow, look at that guy’s hat. The curve is perfect.” The irony wasn’t lost on me.

Today, almost 15 years later, we live in a different world. Kids no longer curve their caps. They leave the stickers on, too, something I’ll never understand. Even more disturbing: The “Perfect Curve” is no longer available at Lids, as far as I can tell. Hell, it isn’t even available at perfectcurve.com. When did we lose our way?

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I know what you’re thinking, and, yes, you’re right: such a ridiculous catch could only be made against the Kansas City Royals. According to the box score, Billy Butler “lined out to right field,” and, sure, that’s one way of putting it.

You say Brennan Boesch lost the baseball in the lights. I say he was practicing his no-look backhand. We’ll have to agree to disagree.

H/T: This magical Tumblr account.

First and foremost: Mental health is no joke. Jose Canseco needs help, man. But this is pretty good:

#Rays Maddon on “minimalist” road trip to Texas: 1 pair jeans, 3 shirts, some socks, “those who wear underwear bring underwear”

— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) April 25, 2012

Neither. Because, let’s face it, you always wondered.

We know too much, my friends. We know too much.

H/T: @AnswerDave.

The Blue Jay Hunter was at it again last night, capturing, for our viewing pleasure, another hot GIF, this time of Kelly Johnson’s defensive wizardry in Kansas City.

It was the kind of play that gets you out of your seat; that makes you yell “Oh!”, or, in regards to Johnson’s pending free agency, “Can we keep him?”

(Unless you’re this guy, of course, with In The Action seats and clearly something better to do.)

Brandon Morrow’s reaction to the play is fantastic. Once he realizes he’s not getting to that ground ball, Morrow stops; he becomes a spectator, like everyone else. Morrow watches Johnson make the only play he could have, a brilliant backhand flip for the out, one that even Omar Vizquel surely appreciated, and then tries to get a piece of Johnson, in appreciation, as Johnson’s momentum takes him towards the Toronto dugout. I loved the fist pump from Johnson, too; Mitch Maier’s out.

Johnson saved a run; there were two outs on the play, and a runner on third base. A web gem, indeed, and they don’t come much prettier than that, yo.

Jose Bautista puts the “Hot” in Hot GIF Action. He also gives new meaning to “Up high, down low” high five etiquette.

Poor Alvarez. The perils of being a rookie in Major League Baseball.

A handshake, and only a handshake, for my dude The Blue Jay Hunter.