Eight times baseball players thought they were playing soccer
8 times baseball players thought they were playing soccer
With the World Cup captivating audiences across the globe, soccer fever has even spread to the big leagues. And with all the goals, saves, red cards, kits, nils and whatnot, can you really blame them?
After watching my first week of soccer ever, I'm now ready to intelligently break down the eight times that the National Pastime has crossed over with the Beautiful Game. Eat your heart out, Ian Darke. (And imagine everything below was written in an English accent. Really adds to the authenticity.)
Here Josh Donaldson winds up for a big kick, but he really fluffed his lines at the end of it:
You know, this one looks a little familiar to me. Oh, yeah, this is it:
Donaldson's teammate, Sonny Gray, square-balled this one with a scissor kick right to his keeper:
And you want excitement? Watch as Paul O'Neill clears his lines to keep the Phillies out of the penalty area:
Keeper's gotta appreciate that bit of defensive footwork.
Kyle Kendrick showed off a bit of an elastico on this bunt.
Showing a few shades of Messi, if you ask me:
Josh Johnson had this beautiful flick on to Jose Reyes for the out:
Oh, but Reyes forgot that you're not allowed to use your hands. That's a soccer rule! Looks like a direct free kick for Boston on that one.
And Dallas Keuchel showed off an inadvertent one-touch pass and couldn't help but smile.
You know, you can't just park your bus ... what's that? Wrong time to use that term? Pip pip!
Uhh ... and here Yasiel Puig actually plays soccer. With Cristiano Ronaldo. So there's that.
And for a bonus, or should I say stoppage time, Richard Prigatano of Long Beach State played a little freestyle football when making this catch:
So look out. Because the next time you think you're watching baseball on the field, you may be watching "football" on the "pitch." And I should know. Because I'm an expert.
UPDATE: Justin Verlander got caught up in the World Cup fever, too, showing off a little samba style that was almost too effective: