Sunday afternoon was the Oakland Athletics' Mike Gallego Windup Toy Day - paying tribute to their energetic third base coach and former scrappy infielder.
As sometimes happens in this sport, Gallego's arms - the ones featured in his mini-replica toy - came in handy when the A's pulled out a 2-1 walk-off win in ten innings. Outfielder Mark Canha's liner into the left-field gap plated Sam Fuld with the winning run, while Gallego stood at his perch waving Fuld along as the play developed.
One perfectly-located A's fan in seats along the third-base line took the opportunity to position his mini-Gallego in frame as the REAL Gallego encouraged Fuld to continue to speed around the bases. The result is a great as-it-happened video of the walk-off fun. Take a look:
At the postgame press conference, A's manager Bob Melvin used the context of the day to crack a joke about the toy - as reported by Matt Kawahara of the Sacramento Bee. Said Melvin: "I almost brought my Mike Gallego windmill toy with me, but I couldn't get him out of the box 'cause his arm was still moving."
As for the walk-off itself, it earned Canha his very first after-game celebratory pie and Gatorade bath. Canha has an Instagram account dedicated to promoting restaurants and eateries he experiences while out and about as a major-leaguer, and he used it to document his post walk-off fun:
As quoted by Kawahara, Gallego summed up the afternoon with the following quote: "That's the way to end the story right there. Perfect ending to a perfect day."
(h/t Twitter/Sac Bee)
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