MLB's Best Signature Moves: The Fancy, the Athletic and the Just Plain Strange

Al Bello/Getty Images

We've all seen it: the signature move.  Many great baseball players have displayed them time and time again throughout their careers, and through them they make the game look easy.

There are the great moves, and then there are the weird ones, which baseball fans of all generations have seen as well.

Here's a list of the best, and strangest signature moves from players in the game today, as well as a few from the annals of history.

Ichiro: The Mobile Swing

Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

No one does it better than Ichiro: the mobile swing - moving toward first base before the swing is even completed.  It seems like Ichiro is out of the box before he's even made contact with the ball.  And he ends up with over 200 hits year-in and year-out.

Flat-out amazing.

Tim Lincecum: The Knock-Down-Spin-Around

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Oh this is a good one.  The Freak is freakishly agile when he knocks a ball down after it's hit right back at him.  Once the ball goes off his glove and rolls behind the mound toward second base, Lincecum goes into a slide on his knees with his back toward first, then picks the ball up with the bare hand, spins his body around and fires a 95-mph strike to nail the runner.

John Rocker: The Bullpen Sprint

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Ah, yes.  The first of our "strange" signature moves.  What compels a relief pitcher to do a full-on sprint from the pen to the mound when he's called into a game?  Well, ask John Rocker.

Rocker, as you may remember, was notorious not only for the sprint, but also for stirring controversy after he made remarks that were widely considered racist about people in New York City.

Rocker did, however, start a small trend.  Other relievers have copied the style, sprinting in when summoned from the bullpen.

Ricky Henderson: The Head-First Slide

Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

Ricky basically invented the head-first slide and popularized its use in baseball.  A dangerous move, to be sure (just ask Josh Hamilton), but it worked for the all-time base-stealing king.

Nomar Garciaparra: Batting Gloves Check

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Another strange one.  Nomar just couldn't help but check his batting gloves before stepping into the box to hit—one, two , three, even four times.  A very fidgety guy when it came to hitting a baseball.

Jeff Kent: The Bad-Call Mutter

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Jeff Kent never let a bad strike call go unchallenged.  But if you were watching on TV, you'd never notice.  That's because Kent would put his head down, seemingly to fix the dirt at home plate, but he would actually be muttering complaints about the last pitch to the home plate umpire.  I'd have loved to be a fly on that wall.

Randy Johnson: The Stare Down

Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

The Stare Down from the eyes of Randy Johnson is one of the most ominous signs a major league hitter could ever see.  It's pretty much over once you see those eyes; you're going down.

Johnson's stare and his 100-mph fastball were so intimidating while he played that some hitters had themselves scratched from the lineup on days that Johnson was scheduled to start.

John Kruk (former Philadelphia Phillies first baseman, and now of Baseball Tonight fame) was visibly shaken and intimidated by Johnson after one of his fastballs sailed over Kruk's head in the 1993 All-Star Game.

Bobby Cox: The Ejection

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Yes, I know it's strange to make ejections a signature move, but I'd give it to anyone who has the major league record for being ejected from a game.  That record belongs to the great Bobby Cox, who managed the Atlanta Braves for 21 seasons, leading the club to a World Series title in 1995.  He retired after the 2010 season, having been ejected 161 times.

Ken Griffey, Jr: Home Run Robbery

Tomasso Derosa/Getty Images

Perhaps no player generated more anticipation when chasing a deep fly ball than Ken Griffey, Jr.  All of his staggering offensive numbers aside, The Kid was a magician when it came to stealing home runs from beyond the center field wall.  He made it look easy, spawning an entire nation of little-leaguers who would try to emulate the scaling of the outfield fence to bring back a home run.

Derek Jeter: The Jump-Throw

Al Bello/Getty Images

And the greatest signature move in baseball belongs to ...

Derek Jeter.

From the get-go, Yankee fans knew Jeter was a special talent.  The Yankee Captain, who has led the Bronx Bombers to five world championships in his career so far, has a lot of talent to show off, both at the plate and at his shortstop position.

But he has one signature move: the "jump-throw".  Jeter is where baseballs headed for the hole between short and third go to die, as he scoops them up on the back-hand, and with footwork ballerinas everywhere would be jealous of, levitates off the ground and makes the perfect throw to first for the out.

That play just never gets old, and it's a lock for a Top10 on SportsCenter any night of the week.