Discovery: Yukon Cornelius and Jason Motte

This one comes to us via the Answer Man himself, Yahoo! Sports’ Big League Stew’s Dave Brown. And, holy shit, the resemblance is, as they say, uncanny.

So you can imagine my disappointment reading Lookout Landing late last night, where Jeff Sullivan — who always brings it, one of my favorite writers — declared likeness comparisons to be so yesterday:

I’ve done it myself – I’ve done it a bunch – but I’m trying to stop, because everybody does it all the time, and it’s annoying. Rarely are the comparisons thought through, so they usually fail. Yet because people make bad comparisons so often, the occasional good ones suffer, because nobody wants to hear them anymore. It’s like a bunch of years ago when I was at school and Chappelle was still on. Drunk assholes would walk around loudly reciting the same lines over and over, and it killed the better Chappelle references for the rest of us. Just let us pretend to be funny by repeating somebody else’s funny!

Damn, Jeff. I feel you on Chappelle, but the beauty of the likeness comparison, at least to me, is that it requires little thought, both in it being put together, and in it being enjoyed. One of my life’s mottos is: “Enjoy the silly shit.” I try to. Every single day.

But Jeff understands. He knows that sometimes, even against better judgement, likeness comparisons must be done. Must be told. Must be shared. Which is why he compared Zack Greinke to Ron Roenicke last night. This, above, Yukon Cornelius and Jason Motte, frigging twins, is also one of those times.

Cornelius and Motte more than just look like one another, though. They also share the same line of work: they’re both prospectors. Yukon’s looking for gold and silver, and Motte’s looking for hitters to put away, and for saves. Almighty saves.

See, Jeff, a likeness comparison and some thinking through. It’s beautiful when it all comes together.

Thank you both, Dave and Jeff. May the two of you write about baseball forever.