Marlins Closer Tyler Phillips Has Reinvented The Closer Entrance Game By Slapping The Hell Out Of Himself While Leaving The Bullpen As Stone Cold Steve Austin's Music Plays

I REALLY love where we're at when it comes to the state of closer entrances in baseball right now, I love it. We've got Duran and that light show with the Undertaker bells in Philly, we had Felix's "Omar Whistle" in Baltimore, of course we have Edwin Diaz and the trumpets at Citi Field, Robert Suarez has a great on in San Diego, but over for the past few weeks we've seen a new challenger enter the arena. 

Tyler Phillips down in Miami saw all the hype around the closers and their entrances and decided to take over the top spot with his. Not only do we get the Stone Cold Steve Austin "glass breaking" song blasting through the speakers, but we've got some physical activity involved too. Phillips, who was great on The Yak and PMT, waits for the bullpen door to open and then proceeds to slap the ever-loving shit out of himself a few times. Just a little something something to wake himself up and make sure he gets locked in for his inning. Yup, you heard that right. He open hand slaps himself pretty damn hard to piss himself off as he gets ready to hit the mound. 

I've known the name but I wasn't aware of this particular ritual performed by him, but I will say that if I see a guy slap himself multiple times I'm immediately all in on him. It's a very unorthodox method to pump yourself up too, but different strokes for different folks. Imagine Mariano slapping himself as he walked out to "Enter Sandman", imagine Trevor Hoffman giving himself a nice open hand with "Hell's Bells" ringing. I've always said you need a few psychos in the bullpen, Phillips fits that bill perfectly. He's the perfect amount of crazy, he's the guy you want coming in when it's late and the game is close. You need a guy with his blood pressure pumping and his adrenaline running wild, what better way to do that than smacking yourself around. If you think it's an act, I can assure you it's not. Just listen to him talk postgame. 

Dialed. Completely dialed in. Even after he records the save he can't turn it off. He's that in the zone that he just can't get out of it. Nearly a whole interview with 3-4 word answers, he was probably itching to get back out there on the mound just to let off some more steam. He seems like a guy who would eat sniffing salts for lunch, those things wouldn't work for him. He's got what it takes to be the closer, throws mid-90s, has ice in his veins and is a crazy SOB. The Stone Cold music is as good as it gets too, that's the perfect song to slap yourself to. Baseball loves their crazy guys, Phillips may just be the next one up on that list. 

PS. Even the security guard at the door had to do a double take to figure out if he just saw what he thought he saw. "Did that guy actually just fucking slap himself in the face?"

PSS. Next year the Marlins need to do a bobblehead of Phillips with the arm being able to move so he can slap himself in the face. That one is free Marlins, the next one will cost ya.