Shirtless postgame interviews are a part of baseball everyone can enjoy
Baseball players are world-class athletes, comically impossible blends of size, speed and strength. There are the obvious examples: Pete Alonso can snap a piece of lumber over his leg like a twig, Andrew McCutchen can run faster than residential speed limits, Aaron Judge is bigger than J.J. Watt and can hit a baseball to the moon. But if you ever get the chance to go up close and personal with a Major League team, you realize that it's not just the stars -- everyone has forearms the size of your torso.
They don't often get to show it to the rest of us, though. Football is as form-fitting as possible. Basketball views sleeves as an annoyance more than anything. Baseball players, meanwhile, are out there performing incredible feats of athleticism in what are basically fancy pajamas.
Until, every now and then, the stars align, tension runs high, a game ends in a walk-off and, somehow, the hero in question winds up in front of the cameras with his shirt ripped off.
Michael Conforto hit a walk-off single to lift the Mets over the Nationals, Alonso got a little too excited and all of a sudden, we were given one of baseball's rarest and most precious gifts: the shirtless postgame interview.
Look at this man:
Shirtless Michael Conforto pictures.
— Stephen TheMetsSucksiah (@StephenJosiah13) August 10, 2019
uhhh...for...science pic.twitter.com/QWzsGoDUoo
Computer, ENHANCE:
Conforto's just the latest to join one of baseball's most exclusive fraternities. The shirtless postgame interview has given us so much over the years -- from confirmation that the Cardinals' Tyler O'Neill may well be the swollest man alive:
To quite possibly the greatest photograph in baseball history, courtesy of Derek Dietrich:
Again: Dietrich isn't even particularly big by Major League standards -- he's an infielder! And he still has muscles that I didn't know existed.
Far be it from us to besmirch the fashion conventions of our national pastime. How else would we get moments like this? But baseball is also a sport of the people, and the people have stood up and proclaimed in one voice that they demand more deltoids.
So, big league clubhouses, it's up to you: We have no control over whether your teammates take their shirts off on the diamond. In fact, we're pretty sure that's a crime. But you do -- so the next time you're about to go celebrate, take a moment to consider the greater good.
