Shawshank Redemption. Beyonce. Jose Bautista. Add the former Toronto Blue Jays slugger to the list of all-time snubs.
MLB Network released its list of the top 10 bat flips of all time and somehow put Bautista’s Game 5 ALDS theatrics at No. 2.
Bautista was beat out by Tom Lawless, who hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning of Game 4 of the 1987 World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals won that game 6-1, but would go on to lose the series in seven to the Minnesota Twins.
While many fans reacted with shock to Bautista missing out on the top spot, others took to social media to explain why Lawless’s bat flip deserved to be crowned the greatest of all time:
But, go ahead and Google “bat flip” and see which comes up first between Lawless and Bautista.
Joey Bats’s three-run shot was the climax of a crazy seventh inning in the deciding game of Toronto’s 2015 ALDS matchup with the Texas Rangers. The emotion of the moment, captured inside a shaking Rogers Centre, drove Bautista to launch his bat in as pure a release we may ever see as the Blue Jays clinched the best-of-five series after being down 0-2.
Plenty of others agree that the folks at MLB Network played themselves here:
While Joey Bats didn’t get the top spot, the Blue Jays were actually well represented on the list, with Edwin Encarnacion’s 2016 wild-card walk-off shot at No. 8 and Carlos Delgado’s overhead toss during his four-homer night came in at No. 6.
You can watch a video of the rightful No. 1 bat flip of all time at the top of this post if you like.
