Base-and-Ball Apéritif: Masahiro Tanaka’s Splitter

It’s not uncommon — with the dinner hour approaching — it’s not uncommon for a gentleman or -lady to partake of such a beverage as might stimulate the appetite and brighten the mood. An apéritif, is how one generally calls this brand of libation.

The readership of the present site being composed almost exclusively of gentlepersons, the concept of the apéritif likely won’t be a foreign one. Slightly less familiar, perhaps — because the present document, in fact, represents the first ever recorded instance of it — is the base-and-ball apéritif.

As with its more liquidy cousin, the purpose of the base-and-ball apéritif is to whet the appetite. In this case, however, the appetite in question is not for the dinner meal but for one or the other of the evening’s most compelling examples of the Pastime.

Tonight, for example, one finds that the New York Yankees host the Toronto Blue Jays at 7:05pm ET — a game, that, featuring both Masahiro Tanaka and also Mahashiro Tanaka’s splitter.

With a view to cultivating anticipation for that particular event, the author has both captured and then rendered into GIF form the footage above and below — in this case, of Tanaka throwing his splitter for a swinging strike to the Mets’ Daniel Murphy on May 14th.

Drink deeply, is what one should do. Metaphorically, is how one should do it.