"Flip Seen 'Round-the-World" Was "Instinctual"
It's being called a "Superman leap," "the Fordham flip" and the "flip-seen-round-the-world."
Fordham University sophomore and shortstop Brian Kownacki was barreling down on Iona catcher James Beck when he did a leap-turned-handspring over Beck to score a crucial run, part of a nine-run, eighth inning rally that helped Fordham overcome an early 9-1 deficit to win, 12-9.
The flip was shown on Plays of the Day on ESPN's "Sports Center," and a video of the play has gone viral, drawing more than a million hits on YouTube and making Kownacki an Internet star.
On "The Early Show" Friday, he told co-anchor Harry Smith his quick-thinking wasn't planned. "It was pretty instinctual," he said. " ... I never tried it before. I saw it tried in Little League, but that was about it."
Kownacki described his sudden fame as "unbelievable. I never thought this would happen in a million years. Originally, I just thought it would just air on ESPN and that would be the end of it, but this has really been a dream come true."
And he said, while his teammates have been ribbing him about it all, "It's all in good fun."