More Eephus Fun: Joey Votto Destroys One, Japanese Pitcher Shows Us How It’s Done

We love a lot of things here at Baseball is Fun, but one of our favorites is a good ole fashioned eephus pitch.

In case you forgot what an eephus pitch was, here’s a little reminder of what a successful and unsuccessful one looks like:

Basically, it’s the attempt by a pitcher to sneak a slow, looping pitch right down the middle of the plate (and past an unsuspecting hitter).

The thinking, I imagine, is that the batter will be so caught off guard, he won’t quite know what to do with it. Shrug. Sometimes it works.

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… And sometimes it doesn’t.

Remember MLB’s resident bad-boy, Joey Votto?

Yeah, well, he cares not for your silly eephus attempts, Yu Darvish:

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That pitch is absolutely crushed – in every single sense of the phrase – right out of the ball park, and Darvish knows it right away:

(Pictured above: The face of a man who knows what just happened.)

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But to be fair, that pitch felt like half-an-eephus. In other words, it didn’t really feel like Darvish entirely committed to the strategy that’s supposed to make that pitch work in the first place.

If you’re interested in what full-out commitment to an eephus looks like, we’ve got you covered (h/t to @EamusCatuli0000 on Twitter for the assist):

You know the center-field camera man was caught off guard when he had to pan the camera up three feet to capture the pitch, because THAT’S an eephus pitch.

written by

Michael Cerami began covering the Chicago Cubs for Bleacher Nation as a part-time contributor in 2015. One year later, he joined Bleacher Nation full-time, covering the Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball. Today, Michael runs Bleacher Nation, contributing as a writer (Cubs, MLB) and an editor for all sections of the site, including the Chicago Bears, Bulls, and Blackhawks, as well as MLB, NBA, NHL, and NFL. In 2019, Michael was the co-host of NBC Sports Chicago's Cubs Post-Game Show Outside the Ivy. You can find him on Twitter/X @Michael_Cerami

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