Flashback Friday: Alfredo Griffin’s Hilariously Bad Strikeout

There’s a reason why only a small percentage of hitters make it to “The Show” – hitting a Major League pitch is not an easy feat. For the few that make it to the bigs, sometimes even they have difficulty timing a pitch.

For this week’s Flashback Friday, we take a look back at a hilariously bad strikeout courtesy of Alfredo Griffin. The game in question took place on September 27th, 1992 at Yankee Stadium.

Without context, this might seem like this is the worst strikeout you’ve ever seen, but let me provide you with a bit of background.

The Blue Jays enjoyed a comfortable 9-0 lead heading into the top of the 5th inning against the Yankees, and that’s when Griffin entered the batter’s box.

By all accounts, it was a very rainy day at Yankee Stadium, and Alfredo Griffin’s motivation was to get five innings in the books as quickly as possible so the game would be made official. So he subsequently swung for the fences at three straight pitches and struck out.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that Griffin struck out on a pitch that was good two feet outside the strike zone, he didn’t even run out the ball to first base. I mean, come on man … if you’re going to feign an at bat, at least sell it a little better than that.

It kind of resembles the type of swing you’d see a kid make in little league where they just close their eyes and swing for the fences, regardless of where the baseball is.

Griffin’s plan was ultimately foiled by the umpires as they called for a rain delay, but the Blue Jays went on to win 12-2 over the Yankees.