The author, whose name roughly translated means something like Paragon of Fun, passed the greater part of his Sunday lakeside about an hour northwest of Madison, Wisconsin, and then a lesser — but still entirely satisfying — part of his Sunday bothering his wife as she made a dinner consisting largely of salmon and wine and kale and wine.

What the author hadn’t planned on, but has been compelled to do, anyway, was capturing and then embedding an animated GIF of Yasiel Puig flipping his bat. But what’s happened is, is the author has captured and now embedded here an animated GIF of Yasiel Puig flipping his bat — in the ninth inning, it turns out, of the Dodgers’ 4-1 victory over the San Franciscans (box)

This is usually Carson Cistulli’s beat, but since he is certainly spending his weekend like he always does — in an opium-fueled haze — I am updating the fair NotGraphs readers with some bat-flip coverage from last night. Behold Josh Donaldson, on a popup.

This bat-flip might have been Donaldson’s saving grace, however, since its majesty certainly distracted the Royals infield enough to perform in the following way:

This has been Weekend Bat-Flip Coverage.

Despite the fact that we all, each of us, invariably spend our days and nights in pursuit of money and then whores and then more money, rumors abound that, on all of our respective deathbeds, neither money nor whores will be of any great concern. This information might come as a surprise to the reader, who is almost certainly reading this post whilst atop a pile of money and beside a comely whore. However, it’s true: in the throes of death, one is more likely to ask questions like, “Did I exhibit courage?” and “Did I treat my friends and family well?”

As the present author is shuffling off this mortal coil and making an examination of both his works and days, he will undoubtedly have many regrets — like that one time he vomited on his shirt in an Armenian taxi, for example, and also that other time he vomited on his shirt in an Armenian taxi. Anyone who suggests, however, that he didn’t make an effort to record every last one of Yasiel Puig’s televised bat flips, is a goddamn liar.

By way of proof, here’s footage from the seventh inning of Tuesday’s game between the Los Angeles Nationals and Colorado (box):

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Sometimes a handsome editor of a certain important weblog is by his computer around the same time Dodgers rookie Yasiel Puig flips his bat dramatically and amusingly on a single against Philadelphia’s John Lannan. Other times, he (i.e. that same editor) is at his in-laws’ house in northern Michigan and has access to the internet only by means of a hotspot and is also asleep.

In any case, the footage presented above is of Yasiel Puig hitting a single and also flipping his bat from last night.

Twins minor leaguer Jordan Parraz hasn’t been a Twins minor leaguer for very long. Until the beginning of May he was a Braves minor leaguer. In 2011, he was a Yankees minor leaguer. Before that he was also, at different points, both a Royals and also an Astros minor leaguer. In sum, Jordan Parraz — originally a third-round pick out of high school by Houston in 2004 — has amassed over 3,500 minor-league plate appearances and precisely zero major-league ones. In addition to some things, Jordan Parraz has likely seen some persons and places, as well. Jordan Parraz is well acquainted with nouns, is the point.

Perhaps related or not, is the footage below of Jordan Parraz from Wednesday’s Double-A Eastern League game between Twins affiliate New Britain and Pirates affiliate Altoona. Ought what Parraz is doing here be referred to as a bat flip proper? Perhaps not. To suggest, however, that bat antics are afoot is an exercise in obvious suggestions.

Like this first one, from the fifth inning, after earning a walk from Altoona pitcher Nathan Baker:

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For years, Luis Valbuena’s minor-league resume seemed to suggest that he could develop into an entirely serviceable major-league infielder. For almost as many years, that didn’t happen.

As a Cub, however, Valbuena has now produced three wins in only slightly more than 500 plate appearances. What else he’s produced is the substance for the footage embedded above — namely, the rare bat flip off an RBI single, in this case against Houston right-hander Bud Norris in the third inning of the Astros’ and Cubs’ Saturday game (box).

Celebrated Dodgers prospect Yasiel Puig has, like 15 minutes ago, officially hit his first official major-league home run. Because many of his previous home runs have been accompanied by what late New Yorker editor William Shakespeare would have described as “dramatic flourish,” the prospect of Puig’s first major-league home run has served as a matter of some interest.

Indeed, there’s little drama here. So far as the author can detect, there’s a suggestion of flip — much in the way that there’s a suggestion of red fruit in this delicious Malbec right here — although it’s also the case that Puig’s swing generally possesses recoil like this.

Are we disappointed? Perhaps. But not nearly as much as we’ll one day be in our children. Or in our children’s children. Or (especially) in our children’s children’s children.

In the sense that the footage here of David Ortiz dispensing of his bat in a manner the author will describe as “aggressively insouciant” both (a) originates from last night and (b) has already been celebrated by l’internet entier, it’s probably fair to say that the present bat-flip alert is belated.

And yet, consider: George Washington died over 200 years ago. Do we not, though, still discuss in history classes and on American streetcorners how he (i.e. Washington) personally and with great physical exertion disemboweled no fewer than every stateside member of the British Navy in the waning hours of the Revolutionary War? We do, is the very obvious answer.

The point: while an event occurs just once, it sometimes requires much in the way of speculation and commentary to be completely understood. Will schoolchildren in 200 years speak in hushed and reverent tones about Ortiz’s bat flip against the Yankees? No, they won’t — for a number of reasons which have already been accounted for by various science-fiction plots. That said, there’s likely something to be gained by carrying into Monday our reflections on Ortiz’s own personal declaration of independence from Sunday.

There are those who will contend that — contrary to the claims being made by the author in the title of this post — that what Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu is captured doing here, in this artisanally crafted animated GIF file, doesn’t constitute a bat flip proper.

What those people don’t understand is, is that the author is paid to make breezy comments about trivial baseball occurrences. And also that, relative to an infinite universe, that all is trivial, actually. And also that we’re, all of us, cadavers merely awaiting our future caskets.

Credit to internet user/abuser urbuddy haysoos for bringing the author’s attention to this Moment in History.

Sometimes, people who are wise in your life will tell you that “Practice makes perfect.” Sometimes, a cat with a good sense of humor and who also happens to speak English with some measure of fluency will tell you that “Practice makes purr-fect.”

In either case, what we learn is that, for anyone who has an interest in acquiring some measure of expertise in this or that skill, what’s necessary is to develop that skill over a long period of time and by virtue of considerable repetition.

As the footage here demonstrates, at least one person in the Dodgers organization understands that. Outfield prospect Yasiel Puig has exhibited considerable promise in the art and science of bat-flipping. Those fledgling efforts haven’t compelled him to miss the forest for the trees, however — in which metaphor the forest is the potential for future bats to be flipped ever more beautifully and the trees are probably individual bats that were flipped well, but not enough to make a whole forest, probably.

Credit to Kiley McDaniel for video and Nick Piecoro for drawing author’s attention to same.