SB Nation MLB Hit of the Year nominees

There were 41,595 hits in the 2014 major league season. That doesn’t include playoffs. So a panel of experts sat down to watch every single hit and report back which were the best. That panel hasn’t been heard from in three weeks. Having lost our panel, we formed a committee to pore over our team blogs’ favorite hits of the year and nominate five for a national vote. Well, that was difficult, so we fudged a bit and nominated a sixth one, too.

A committee of SB Nation baseball editors and writers -- Grant Brisbee, Marc Normandin, Bill Hanstock and Kurt Mensching -- picked our favorite hits after our 30 baseball blogs nominated their team’s best. Now it’s your turn to tell us which hit was your favorite.

Inside you’ll find walk-offs and in-the-park home runs and a sentimental favorite that in the grand scheme may not have meant much, yet reminded us why sports are great.

Apologies to the A’s fans out there who don’t wish to relive that moment when their team went from leading by four runs in the eighth inning -- and then by one in the 12th -- only to experience playoff heartbreak again. But for the Royals, Sal Perez’s walk-off single gave the fans of Kansas City their first playoff victory since 1985. So what it lacks in aesthetics, it sure makes up for in emotion.

We swear we don’t have it out for the Athletics. Promise! But this is the kind of thing kids dream of. Ninth inning. Down by three. Bases loaded. The other team’s ace reliever on the mound. The only thing that could possibly make this hit better is if it came with two outs and two strikes. Rajai Davis deposited Sean Doolittle’s pitch beyond the left-field wall and the Tigers walked off with a 5-4 victory. It was worth +.791 WPA, and caused Grant Brisbee to figure out a new name for the “ultimate” grand slam.

Should we have expected anything less storybook of Derek Jeter than his hitting a walk-off in his final at bat at Yankee Stadium? Of course not. Not when the Captain is involved. Even non-Yankees fans -- maybe even Red Sox fans! -- have to admit what an emotional moment it was. You wouldn’t want it any other way.

Sure the Giants were going to go to the World Series anyway, one way or another. But hitting a home run to clinch the World Series? That’s a pretty great moment.

Grant writes in his nomination post:

It’s a contender because it literally sent the Giants to the World Series. You might suggest that the Giants were likely to win, regardless, so it can’t be the most important hit, just the coolest. That’s a fair argument.

The Rockies won -- ::googles:: some number of games this season -- well, it doesn’t matter. What matters is they won this one June 14, helped by not just any ol’ home run, but a two-out, two-run in-the-park homer by Brandon Barnes in the ninth inning off of Giants closer Sergio Romo. The most exciting play in sports? Just might be. It just might be.

No pennants were won. No playoff demons were exorcised. It was just a rookie getting that first hit out of the way. Except this wasn’t just another hit. This hit was 13 years and 1,095 minor league games in the making. Seeing a dream come true after all that, when most people would have just given up and moved on to a job selling insurance somewhere, makes this hit pretty darn magical itself. And just look at his happy parents! It’s getting dusty in here.