This Rays pitcher's goofy, endearing facial expression is a reminder that life is nothing without emotion
Imagine you're at home. Alone. Taking a shower. You have the house all to yourself, so you start singing. Why not? Have some fun with it.
It doesn't matter what you're singing -- it could be Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On." Or maybe the inescapable "Baby Shark," or "Old Town Road." What matters is you're singing ... and you're actually not alone. Your roommate's still there, and he hears you and starts laughing from the other room.
The best thing you can do at that precise moment is laugh. Laughter cures all ills and flips "embarrassing" moments upside down.
In the sixth inning of Wednesday's Rays-Astros game in Houston, Tampa Bay lefty Ryan Yarbrough was in a tough spot. With two outs and a runner on second, he ran over to first to field a grounder to end the inning. A tough task completed, he let it all out. And I mean ALL of it, before catching himself in the lens of the TV camera and reflexively hiding behind the protection of his glove.
We saw that @RyanYarbrough2 😂 pic.twitter.com/kl4N7m36WV
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This face says it all. In a matter of seconds, Yarbrough flashed an expression of relief, stress, exhaustion, elation and accomplishment. The deep, soulful sigh after a job well done -- quashing a potential rally put forth by the relentless (and, some say, villainous) onslaught presented by the Astros on a daily basis -- deserves an outburst like this.
It's human nature to do something "weird" like this facial expression and automatically think, "OH NO, SOMEBODY SAW ME." But you know what? It's truly no big deal.
Yarbrough deserved that kind of emotional reaction after what he pulled off, preventing Yordan Alvarez from smashing the scoreboard with another moonshot home run and stopping Houston's attempted rally.
There's just SO much here. It's a perfect facial expression, relaying the entire spectrum of human emotion.
It's also highly relatable. I made a variation of this face, I'm sure, back in college when I "forgot" a big paper was due, or when I drove all the way to the video store (remember those, kids?) to return a movie, only to have left the movie at home on the table. Or when I mustered up the courage to finally go for it and ask that one girl out to din --
Wait. This isn't about me. It's about Ryan Yarbrough's entertaining facial expression, one he shouldn't be afraid to bust out again. We're all just trying to get by, after all.
Why not have some fun along the way?
Adrian Garro joined MLB.com in 2016. Throughout his travels, both Bartolo Colon and Vin Scully have placed their hands on his shoulders. Not at the same time, though. That'd be amazing.
