Francisco Alvarez authored the moment of his young Major League career last night by blasting a walk-off home run for the New York Mets against the Baltimore Orioles at Citi Field. The blast helped the Mets keep pace as they chase a Wild Card spot and entry into the random lottery that is October baseball. And more importantly, it was as aesthetically pleasing as any sports clip a person could ever want to see.
Alvarez made perfect contact with a perfect tilt of his body and immediately knew it was over. He capitalized on his well-earned opportunity to make the most of the moment and go theater kid, timing his celebration perfectly with the in-stadium light show.
Often times in sports we get so bogged down with the details and pointless sideshows that we forget how objectively cool they are. Imagine for one second what doing something like this must feel like. To blast a ball into oblivion, refuse to look at it and only know it made landfall because the lights go out in a stadium full of people. Seems like that would be as excellent as pretty much anything in any other sport. What are the odds of getting to sleep at a reasonable hour after that insane shot of adrenaline?
Tough to have a better nine seconds than this.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Francisco Alvarez's Walk-Off Homer Was Pure Cinema.