What’s that hand gesture the Phillies keep making after a big play?

I was watching the Phillies trounce the Atlanta Braves in the NLDS last week when I first saw the gesture on national TV.

After one of their teammates had a big hit, a couple of Phillies players in the dugout put both hands out in front of them, palms facing up, and appeared to be juggling some invisible things.

I thought they were making a crude reference to female anatomy. My husband thought they were making a crude reference to male anatomy. We then proceeded to have a 10-minute debate about the universal double-handed signal for each, which is not a discussion I expected to have in our first year of marriage.

But then again, the Phillies have us all doing wild things.

Turns out, my husband was right, and the Phillies didn’t just start doing it during the playoffs, they’ve been doing it for much of the season. (Admittedly, I’m a bandwagon fan, but I’m all up in this ride now and you can’t kick me off. Choo! Choo!)

Fans started asking about the gesture back in July on the Phillies subreddit. Aside from one fan who tried to suggest that the Phillies were innocently pretending to play with Slinkys, others were quick to point out that the move meant “big balls,” “Cajones[sic] grande,” “brass clankers,” and “MMAAAAHHHHHHBBBLLLLESSS.”

“It takes big balls to get a major league hit,” one Phillies fan wrote.

“I had to explain this to my mother in law as well lol,” another said.

According to posts in the subreddit, and previous reports about the gesture, it originates from the 1994 baseball movie, Major League II, starring Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen.

In the film one of the players uses the gesture when accusing his teammate of having “no marbles.” When that teammate then hits a home run in the next game, he reenacts the gesture in celebration.

The Phillies are not the first team from the city to use the gesture. According to a 2021 article from Billy Penn, it’s previously been used by everyone from Eagles players to Sixers assistant coach Sam Cassell.

What I like about the way the Phillies use it is that it’s not employed to taunt the other team, but to further the camaraderie and support that is so apparent among these Phillies players themselves.

Is the gesture crass? Sure. Some might even call it a PG-13 move from a PG-rated movie, but I don’t think it’s anything to get teste about. If you want class, go to the ballet. If you want to have a raging good time and see things that will make you ask, “Did they just do what I thought they did?” then go to Citizens Bank Park.

On Monday night, catcher J.T. Realmuto did the gesture on base on national television during Game 1 of the NLCS, so at this point, there’s no more ignoring it (which is why I’m getting to write a column about it for the city’s paper of record).

And, it’s hard to argue with the fact that the Phillies are actually hitting big balls — big, beautiful homers that show how incredible this team is, homers that give the fans a chance to show off how amazing they are, too.

When it comes down to it, the gesture is both questionable in taste and incredibly encouraging — like Philly, and Phillies fans.