Whatever happened to the high five?
I was reading the Wall Street Journal the other day and came across an article by Brian Costa that talked about "The Claw" -- you know, that gesture we saw Vladimir Guerrero and some of the other Texas Rangers use during last year's World Series?Anyway, the article mentioned how Mets shortstop Jose Reyes (who has been rumored to be coming to the Giants via trade) has adopted the practice of throwing his right hand over his head and spreading his fingers in the shape of a claw.
It's rather silly, really. I'm a purist and I prefer a good old fashioned ass-slapping myself. Wait, that didn't sound right. On second thought, I prefer the traditional high five. But that's hard to do if you're in the dugout and you can't wait for the guy who just roped an RBI double to come back in so you can congratulate him properly.
So now some players are reverting to The Claw.
As I was reading the WSJ (for those of you who are regular readers of McCovey Chronicles, the Wall Street Journal is a daily newspaper that primarily covers American economic and international business issues. Kind of like "Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe," only for adults who don't live in their mom and dad's basement). But I regress.
Tejada and Reyes played together during the '09 WBC.
Anyway, the WSJ article (located in the sports section) went on to say that it was San Francisco Giants infielder Miguel Tejada who started The Claw back when he played for the Baltimore Orioles.Tejada didn't say precisely when or why he started the gesture, saying that he did it "one day, just having fun in a game."
And Reyes picked it up from Tejada when they played together for the Dominican Republic in the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
If Reyes really does become a San Francisco Giant, wouldn't that be so much fun watching him and Tejada claw each other? Almost as much fun as reading Scott Pilgrim.
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