Melky Cabrera High Fives Joe West

by Carson Cistulli - April 4, 2011

On June 10th of last season, in the fifth inning of a Braves-Diamondbacks game, Martin Prado hit an infield single to third base. Teammate Melky Cabrera took third on the play. Famous umpire Joe West called time to allow then-Arizona coach A.J. Hinch to make a pitching change.

Then this happened:

Deep, prostrating bows to Peter Hjort of Capitol Avenue Club for drawing our attention to this almost forgotten event and Jeff Sullivan of Lookout Landing for his unparalleled .gif-ing skills.

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Carson Cistulli says terrible things at The New Enthusiast.

13 Responses to “Melky Cabrera High Fives Joe West”

1. Chris Cwik says:

   April 4, 2011 at 4:10 pm

   I think we can all guess what happened next…
   

   

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2. rodg12 says:

   April 4, 2011 at 4:19 pm

   Melky being Melky…
   

   

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   • Yirmiyahu says:

     April 5, 2011 at 8:18 am

     Melky stole this from Vince Young:

     http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/NFL-referee-didn-t-mean-to-high-five-Vince-Young?urn=nfl-204948
     

     

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3. Karcotte says:

   April 4, 2011 at 4:46 pm

   intangibles
   

   

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4. Eric says:

   April 4, 2011 at 4:55 pm

   Melky gonna melk
   

   

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5. telemakhos says:

   April 4, 2011 at 5:23 pm

   This makes me forgive melky for last year’s negative WAR
   

   

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6. bgrosnick says:

   April 4, 2011 at 5:46 pm

   Part of the beauty of this is that it’s not JUST a high-five. It’s a high-five deadpan joy assault on a (presumably) unwilling participant. Just as Melky Cabrera forced his way into lineups from New York to Kansas City, he has just as callously forced his way into a Joe West high-five, and thusly into NotGraphs. I’d offer him a high-five, but he’d probably just take one anyway without my permission.

   There are so many ways this brief scene can be interpreted. Pattycake? Joe West luring him into a false sense of security before an ejection/country music concert? Melky is just so happy to be on base that he loses himself in the moment?

   Mind. Blown.
   

   

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   • glassSheets says:

     April 4, 2011 at 5:50 pm

     He was the beneficiary of an IBB to get to Tommy Hanson.
     

     

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     • bgrosnick says:

       April 4, 2011 at 5:56 pm

       Even better.
       

       

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     • AK707 says:

       April 4, 2011 at 6:29 pm

       Doesn’t make sense – melky is clearly standing on 3B, did they really IBB him all the way to third just to show how poor a hitter they think Hanson is? Its a lot of work to IBB somebody and balk them over to third. I mean, I would have done that to get to melky, but not Hanson. Those pitchers run into one occasionally when they close their eyes.
       

       

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       • glassSheets says:

         April 4, 2011 at 8:55 pm

         The IBB is how he got on based, the aforementioned Prado single advanced him to third.
         

         

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7. Davis says:

   April 4, 2011 at 6:06 pm

   Wait, so was Joe West calling time, or was he actually offering a high-five?
   

   

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8. njq says:

   April 4, 2011 at 6:48 pm

   Its time for a Joe West Graphs site now, right?
   

   

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