WATCH: Jack Flaherty’s cinema-themed hype video ahead of first start is pure goosebumps

Josh Wilson

Jack Flaherty, St. Louis Cardinals (Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)

Jack Flaherty is locked in for his first start of the season, channeling his inner Joker before he takes the mound against the Blue Jays on Saturday.

The St. Louis Cardinals lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in their Opening Day game at home, but the excitement for the Cardinals to push the limits in the NL Central this year are still sky-high. They got just a little bit higher when Jack Flaherty took to Twitter to share an epic hype video ahead of his first start.

Opening Day may be behind us. There’s not quite as much pregame fanfare as there is for games until the postseason, but for pitchers, they have an increased level of excitement and anticipation for their personal opening days, if they don’t get the nod as the game-one starter of a new season.

Flaherty is channeling one particular character before his Saturday start: The Joker. And to be more specific, the Heath Ledger Joker, one of the most iconic movie portrayals of all-time.

Jack Flaherty shares hype video before first start, inspired by the Joker

Here’s the hype video Jack Flaherty shared out on Saturday:

the people’s champ must be everything the people can’t be
🃏 pic.twitter.com/SylBrSSNkP
— Jack Flaherty (@Jack9Flaherty) April 1, 2023

It features scenic shots of St. Louis, soundbites of analysts talking about him and the Cardinals, and then shots of the Joker and scenes from The Dark Knight, primarily centered on scenes that featured Ledger’s Joker portrayal.

He captioned it, “the people’s champ must be everything the people can’t be” with a Joker emoji.

Flaherty might be a nice due, but he doesn’t seem to be holding back any punches with his mindset going into game two of the year for St. Louis, and his first on the bump. Taking inspiration from one of the most sinister movie characters ever is, well, making it very clear what you set out to do on the mound.

St. Louis looks to bounce back up to 1-1. Miles Mikolas got the start on Thursday and didn’t fare well, giving up 10 hits and five earned runs in a high-scoring game.

Last season, Flaherty had a 4.25 ERA in nine games (eight starts) with a 2-1 record. A free agent after this year, he should be motivated to perform at his highest possible level after some injury-defined years in 2022 and 2021.

Josh Wilson

Josh is currently the Managing Editor of FanSided.com. He has worked with FanSided in some capacity for a total of eight years, starting as a contributor for Swarm and Sting, Toro Times, and HoopsHabit in 2015. He served as a site expert for The Sixer Sense during 'The Process' years while starting his educational track at Temple University as a journalism student. He later transferred to the State University of New York at Cortland where he completed his B.A. in Mass Communication with a concentration in journalism. For FanSided, Josh worked as Operations Assistant before taking on a role as Editorial Director of the NBA Division, a role he held for three years. Along the way he also helped start and lead the FanSided fellowship program which created a path for several young journalists to start their careers in sports media. Nothing is more important to Josh than Yankee wins and his family.