One of the most enjoyable parts of 2013 Blue Jays baseball was the existence of Munenori Kawasaki. He joined the club right after a horrible start to the season and a scene of Jose Reyes crying on the field, and led the Jays cheering section for a surprisingly extended period. With a batting line of .229/.326/.308, you wouldn’t expect him to win any postseason awards, but lo and behold, Major League Baseball has a series of awards based on votes from fans, MLB alumni, front office staff and media. Someone in the MLB office decided to name these awards the “GIBBYs”, which is a horrible acronym for “Greatness In BaseBall Yearly”.
Kawasaki, the former Blue Jay and current free agent, won the “Cut4 Topic of the Year” award for his postgame interview with Sportsnet’s Mark DeRosa and Arash Madani and a ball boy who comes to play a trick on him in the face.
Now that it’s officially an award-winning moment, can we get someone to market the little phrasebook that Kawasaki uses, please?
So who were the other nominees that Kawasaki had to beat to obtain the prestigious prize?
- Fan who caught a foul ball while carrying a baby at AT&T Park
- A Miami Marlins pre-game ceremony
- Carly Rae Jepsen’s horrific first pitch at Tropicana Field
- Shy man trying to run away from camera fuck at Dodgers stadium
- The Yankees outline Mariano Rivera in the outfield at Kauffman Stadium where he injured his knee
- Brandon Phillips’ strange sac bunt
- Pittsburgh Pirates mascot falls over railing
- A Prince Fielder lookalike
- A first telerobotic pitch oh my God, I’m only halfway through, I’m not watching the rest of this nine minute video
Toronto appears to be the home of the GIBBY “Cut 4 Subject of the Year” awards: the first winner (in 2012) was Bryce Harper, who presented the award a line he is now known for in the Rogers Center locker room.
