Bo Jackson and 7 other players who could teach Johnny Cueto a thing or two about breaking bats
8 players who know how to break a bat
Reds pitcher Johnny Cueto was unhappy about striking out on Tuesday and decided to break his bat over his knee. Unfortunately, Cueto's pre-game Googling never uncovered an article called "This One Cool Trick I Learned for Breaking Bats on Your Knee [VIDEO] [GIF] [SLIDESHOW]," and so the exercise was doomed for failure:
In an effort to teach Cueto the finer points of performing a bat break, we've enlisted the help of some expert Major League smashers to offer something of a tutorial:
First up is Carlos Gomez, perfectly illustrating the basic bat-over-knee break:
And here's Chris Davis showing the knee-raise variation:
Big Papi (Big Chop-i?) chooses to go with the exaggerated wind-up technique:
While Adam Eaton focuses on discarding the shards with contempt:
No matter which method you choose, it's important to remember to follow through. Here's Andres Torres demonstrating how important that is:
Maybe you'd like to break your bat, but you don't want to risk any pain in your leg? Well, fear not: there are plenty of other methods that don't involve a femur. Skip Schumaker's preferred motion uses the ground as a chopping block:
And Evan Gattis likes to use his back:
Of course, Bo Jackson was one of the all-time great bat-breakers, and his creativity was one of his greatest assets:
But remember -- it's all about the quality of the smash, not the quantity. This guy never learned that lesson. That's why he's not in MLB: