One of the more 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 an unexpectedly extended period of time. With a batting line of .229/.326/.308, one wouldn't expect him to win any post-season awards, but lo and behold, Major League Baseball has a series of awards based on votes by fans, MLB alumni, front office personnel and media. Someone in the MLB offices 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 Mark DeRosa and Sportsnet's Arash Madani and some ball boy who comes out to pie him in the face.
Now that the moment is officially award-winning, can we get someone to market the little phrasebook Kawasaki used in please?
So, who were the other nominees that Kawasaki had to beat to get the prestigious award?
- A fan who caught a foul ball while carrying a baby at AT&T Park
- A Miami Marlins pre-game ceremony
- Carly Rae Jepsen's horrible first-pitch at Tropicana Field
- A shy man trying to run away from a kiss cam at Dodgers Stadium
- The Yankees painting an outline of Mariano Rivera in the Kauffman Stadium outfield where he had his knee injury
- Brandon Phillips's weird sac bunt
- Pittsburgh Pirates mascot falling over the railing
- A Prince Fielder lookalike
- A telerobotic first pitch oh god I'm only half way through I'm not watching the rest of this nine-minute video
Toronto seems to be the hotbed of the GIBBY "Cut 4 Topic of the Year" awards--the first winner (from 2012) was Bryce Harper giving the one-liner he's now known for in the Rogers Centre dressing room.