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Perhaps it's the awkwardness in front of large crowds or the fact that we've come to rely on him for the majority of our life's hope, but I think we all see a little of ourselves in Ken Giles.
We saw even more of what's in Giles on Friday, when Giles entered the Phillies' game against the Nationals in the eighth inning. Down 2-1, Giles just needed to keep the Phillies close, but before he could even appear in his appearance, Carlos Ruiz noticed Giles was bleeding from the hand. A quick committee meeting was had on the mound between Ruiz, Giles, Ryne Sandberg, Bob McClure, and a trainer.
It's all right, everyone. It turns out Ken Giles just actively wounds himself every time he throws one of his pitches.
Sandberg said Giles snaps his fingers so hard on a breaking pitch that his pointer finger's nail scratches his thumb.
It's one of baseball's unwritten rules, however, that the players not bleed "more than is necessary" while on the field of play, so Sandberg had to be convinced that Giles wasn't about to paint the mound red. But with the game on the line, and also the blood loss, Giles was having a hard time focusing.
Ken Giles is just awesome pic.twitter.com/mjHxaMDsSF
— Matt Winkelman (@Matt_Winkelman) May 24, 2015
KEN GILES: Just go, Skip. Leave me out here.
RYNE SANDBERG: What? You don't have to do this, Ken. This is exactly why we have trainers.
TRAINER: [chuckling] Yeah man, let me earn my pay check.
GILES: [Lurching away] GO! The ump's already here, there's no time.
UMPIRE: [Arriving at mound, giving Giles weird look] ...what's, uh. What's going on out here.
SANDBERG: Giles is bleeding, we're taking care of it.
GILES: The trumpets of Valhalla call to me!