GIF Tournament III: No. 8 'Barry Zito' vs. No. 9 'Nappin' Mike Francesa'

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- FIRST ROUND
(8) BARRY ZITO VS. (9) MIKE FRANCESA

BARRY ZITO.

Automatic bid. Finished first in Week 15 of THIS WEEK IN GIFs with 245 votes.

Pitching is an exercise of precision. If a delivery is 0.01 percent off from what it should be, the ball falls outside of the strike zone. If it's one percent off, this happens. A terribly botched pitch like this happens once in a while.

The beauty of this is in everyone's response to what has happened here. Barry Zito just stands and slouches in resignation. The umpire pulls off his mask, determined to confirm that the thing he tried to throw was, in fact, a baseball and not a cotton ball. Carlos Quentin takes it in, grimaces, and walks away, determined never to play baseball again. If this GIF lasted longer, we would see the fans in attendance calmly shuffle out of their seats and into their cars, eventually going to sleep in their beds with their clothes and the lights on.

NAPPIN' MIKE FRANCESA.

Special nomination. Finished second in Week 17 of THIS WEEK IN GIFs with 214 votes.

This is the only time I've ever seen a person fall asleep while hosting his own show. I don't know what this Sweeny Murti fellow could have been talking about that was so boring, but I'll take a few guesses:

• A list of every 2-1 fastball Gavin Floyd has ever thrown
• What happens when you microwave a bowl of milk
• His Star Trek: The Next Generation fan fiction, in which Worf successfully lobbies for his own chair to sit in on the bridge so he doesn't have to stand up while using the computer like some kind of idiot
• A calm, collected, and drawn-out argument with himself over whether "Rob Deer" is a palindrome
• What happens when you put a bowl of milk in the microwave but don't turn the microwave on

VOTE!

GIF TOURNAMENT III -- EAST REGION -- FIRST ROUND

(1) ZLATAN IBRAHAMOVIC vs.
(16) PEYTON MANNING
Voting is live!

(8) BARRY ZITO vs.
(9) NAPPIN' MIKE FRANCESA
Voting is live!

(5) MARK SANCHEZ vs.
(12) REPLACEMENT OFFICIAL
Voting is live!

(4) JADEVEON CLOWNEY vs.
(13) ICHIRO SUZUKI
Voting is live!

(6) PADRES BULLPEN CATCHER vs.
(11) WADE BOGGS
Voting is live!

(3) SCREAMIN' MARINE vs.
(14) FELIX BAUMGARTNER
Voting is live!

(7) JOEY CRAWFORD vs.
(10) TEXAS FAN/CAMERAMAN
Voting is live!

(2) TIM LINCECUM vs.
(15) MATT ELAM
Voting is live!