Chris Dickerson is thankful his beard is still intact after this awkwardly amazing slide

Chris Dickerson's awkwardly amazing slide

By Michael Clair

August 21, 2014

Sliding is harder than it looks. I once managed to slide into second base in such a way that I wasn't able to breathe for about 30 seconds. Then again, I'm remarkably uncoordinated.

Despite being a full-grown professional athlete with all the requisite hand-eye coordination and motor skills, Chris Dickerson managed to look like, well ... "a dead fish" is what he called it:

Chris Dickerson

As for how it happened, Dickerson said:

"I figured I was going for the outside part of home plate. ... Then I hit and it pinned [my right] arm back and, as I was going over the plate, it looked like I was taking a nap. It looked like I was sliding on my face, taking a nap."

The Indians outfielder added that he lost part of his eye black and that he told Ryan Raburn, "Well, at least my beard is still intact."

Don't think that the rest of the league isn't paying attention, either. By the time he made it back to the clubhouse, he had already received a text message from Joey Votto. According to Dickerson, Votto's text read:

"People might dog your slide, but I thought it was tight. That's literally my best slide and probably your worst slide."

(Reporting by Jordan Bastian / MLB.com)