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‘Oh Slider, Slide’: White Sox RHP Dylan Cease Wrote Poem About His Best Pitch

The Chicago pitcher is a poet. And he knows it, too.

Tom Dierberger

‘Oh Slider, Slide’: White Sox RHP Dylan Cease Wrote Poem About His Best Pitch
‘Oh Slider, Slide’: White Sox RHP Dylan Cease Wrote Poem About His Best Pitch /
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Chicago White Sox right-handed pitcher Dylan Cease is a poet. And he knows it, too.

In a video posted by MLB’s official social media account Wednesday, Cease revealed that he once spent time in the shower writing an ode to honor his slider.

“Honestly, I was just in the shower, and I was listening to piano music,” Cease said. “Just happened in my mind, so I ended up writing it down.”

It went a little something like this:

“Oh slider, slide, oh slider, slide past the batsman. I send my slider to hide. Oh slider, slide, oh slider, slide, past the batsman I send that round cowhide.”

Cease couldn’t remember the rest.

Cease’s slider was the best pitcher in baseball during the 2022 MLB season. Among all pitches in baseball, Cease’s slider notched a run value of plus-36, far better than the second-best MLB pitch that year (Shohei Ohtani’s sweeper; plus-25). 

Cease threw that pitch nearly 43% of the time that season, logging a 14-8 record, 2.20 ERA and finishing runner-up in the AL Cy Young Award race.

A pitch worth a poem, indeed.

“If you break down every line, it really is applicable to the slider,” he said.

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Tom Dierberger
TOM DIERBERGER

Tom Dierberger is a staff writer and editor on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in November 2023 after stints at FOX Sports, Bally Sports and NBC Sports. Dierberger has a bachelor's in communication from St. John's University. In his spare time, he can be seen throwing out his arm while playing fetch with his dog, Walter B. Boy.

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