IronPigs Nominated for ‘Best Reaction to Popped-Up Bunt of the Year’ Award

“AM I DOING THIS RIGHT? YOU SHOULD TELL ME.” Kevin Jairaj-US PRESSWIRE

Competing with ridiculous Mike Trout thing for top spot

It’s hard enough to remember players and team names in the minors, but to realize that each team has a schedule of games, with those games made up of innings, and those innings made up of moments… the anatomy of a farm system can boggle the mind with unsafe intensity at times.

But it’s not until the end of the year that we start measuring those moments against each other, to see whose were the most iconic or violent or had the most alligator costumes.  Fortunately for those Phillies fans starved for glory in October, the Lehigh Valley IronPigs are nominees and may actually wind up the champion of something other than “most usages of the term ‘quad-A.'”

It all starts when Eli Kratz, whose name is actually Erik Kratz, catches a skillfully popped-up bunt right in front of the plate.  He makes the immediate decision to fire it down to second and catch the runner who was going on the play.  Before anyone in the Altoona Curve dugout can scream “OH GOOD LORD NO NOT THIS,” the runner on first is hornswaggled as well, giving the ‘Pigs their first triple play in franchise history.

Was it the kind of heads-up play that got Erik Kratz promoted to the big club?  Of course it was.  Also what got him promoted was our hideously bloodstained catcher-holes in the roster.

You can vote for the play here, and don’t even bother to watch any of the other plays.  Just a bunch of home run robberies and a pop-up that somehow gets into the dugout and becomes a ground rule double.  Also Mike Trout is in there somewhere, obviously.

And while you’re there, why not give the Williamsport Crosscutters your time and vote for their nominee for Best Photo? It’s all the way at the bottom, though, which maybe you don’t have the time for.  It features Williamsport centerfielder Diego Gonzalez diving into third, lips puckered like he’s about to kiss a dog on a dare, and hurdling through gravity like a dead fish being tossed from the back of a truck.

An excellent image, you’d be a fool to ignore it in favor of other entries like Delino DeShields screaming at an umpire or a guy from the Trenton Thunder who refers to himself as “Thunder Facilitator of Awesomeness” dressing up like an umpire and being assaulted by a crew of vengeful mascots.

And don’t forget the Reading Phillies’ Jiwan James turn a home run into some sort of deceptive, mystery rubicon-catch.  That one’s actually in direct competition with the IronPigs’ triple play, forcing us into a position of such brutal fannibalization I can’t even describe it without creative a new innovative term.