Bat flips are great, so here are some of my favorites

For someone that shits on baseball a lot, I have plenty of opinions about it. Here’s my hottest take. Fire up the propane grill, baseball-likers, because you guys are not ready.

Bat flips are good. *drops mic*

Ok, so you might not think that’s such a hot take. You might even agree with me. But you’re the sort of person who reads Secret Base, which means you like cool things, and therefore you like bat flips. If you’re already convinced, come celebrate the joy of bat flips with me. And if you’re not, give me a couple minutes to change your mind.

The art of flipping a bat is a sacred practice that hurts nothing except for the feelings of the most fragile of pitchers. A truly elite bat flip can be the defining moment of your career if you play your cards right. No better example of this is Jose Bautista’s iconic bat flip in the 2015 ALCS that sparked a beef between him and Rougned Odor:

A lot of baseball players and fans complain about bat flips being disrespectful or whatnot. Fuck that. Cry about it. You know what’s actually disrespectful of your fellow human being? throwing a 90-plus mph fastball directly at the hitter during their next at bat in retaliation. Not only is deliberately plunking someone who took you deep dangerous, it also makes you look like an insecure chump. What’s the matter? Can’t deal with not getting a batter out in a sport where the batter fails like 7 out of 10 times?

You would think that bat flips are bats being chucked directly at the pitcher with how they like to “respond”. Pitch better, fam.

With that said, let’s take a look at some of my favorite bat drops/flips across history.

The Best MLB Bat Flips

Carlos Correa ALCS Game 2 (2019)

Watching this live was freaking epic. The stare at the bench, paired with the pitcher speed-walking off the mound is still funny to this day. I know we’re all mad at the Astros for cheating or whatever, but this moment being against the Yankees cancels that out for a moment right. I mean, it’s the YANKEES.

Correa looking to the dugout, dropping the bat and going full “I can’t hear you” is some of the coolest shit from that season.

Billy Butler (2016)

In the beginning of this special at-bat, Billy Butler gets into an argument with the catcher Chris Gimenez over balls and strikes.

This leads to a full count, and then Butler MASHES the next pitch into orbit, yells back at Gimenez and proceeds to trot around the base-paths. What a funny sport.

The best part about this is that the YouTube description for this clip is “Billy Butler connects for his fourth home run of the season, a line drive that clears the wall in left and ties the score”. That’s it.

Tim Anderson (2019)

I always love looking at when exactly in the game these occur. Take a look at this Tim Anderson one.

It’s the 4th inning. I love it. You never know when home-runs will happen, so you should always be ready to drop a cool-as bat throw. Of course it’s baseball, so cool shit is immediately canceled out by a 92 mph fastball from a pitcher stuck in their feelings. WACK.

David Ortiz (2013)

The reason why this one stands out to me is because Ortiz usually watches the ball go, but this time he decided not to do that and chucked it. Even better that it’s in a rivalry game.

Carlos Gomez

Carlos Gomez has had some incredible bat flips over the course of his career, but my favorite was this epic one against the Braves in 2013.

The funniest part about this is that it’s in the top of the first inning. During the trot Gomez exchanges words with Freddie Freeman, the pitcher AND Brian McCann, WHO DOESN’T LET HIM TOUCH THE PLATE. BASEBALL IS THE DUMBEST SPORT Y’ALL. I like to imagine that Gomez is just shouting “LET ME TOUCH THE PLATE” over and over again.

I know I could go one and on but I have to get back to working on Fumble Dimension so I’ll stop the list here.

Just kidding. BONUS ROUND!

BONUS Section: World Baseball Classic

Wladimir Balentien

The World Baseball Classic is a great place for bat flips and Balentien is one of the best at that. Just look at the emotion in this one.

Carlos Correa again

Look how far he throws this shit. Epic.

BONUS BONUS: Korean Baseball Bat Flips

You thought I was going to write a whole article on bat flips without mentioning the KBO? Shame on you. These guys are the kings of bat flipping. I found a montage of epic bat flips and I hope you enjoy them all.