If a picture tells a thousand words, as the old cliche goes, then this amazing sports shot is good for at least a million.
Seriously, every single face here tells a story. Stories of dreams. Stories of fears. Stories of courage under fire, and panic under duress. In short, the stories of men and women drilled down to their true essences, finding out who they really are in the split second it takes for a rock-hard baseball to come hurtling from the heavens down into their once-tranquil section of Fenway Park.
See also: A Woman's Touching Quest to Get Grandpa to Fenway One Last Time
There are plenty of great foul ball shots out there, but this may just be best. In fact, it may well be the funniest baseball pic we've ever seen. It was shot by Jim Davis of The Boston Globe during a Red Sox-Orioles game in Boston last week. A moderate amount of Internet sleuthing yielded no results as to who came up with baseball in question, but we'll keep looking and let you know if anything turns up.
Meanwhile, tell us whose action face you like best in the comments.
'Patrulla Aguila', or the Spanish Air Force, performs with the CASA C-101 Aviojets during the International Air Show at the Hungarian Air Force base in Kecskemet, southern Hungary, on Aug. 3.
Image: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images
People walk through the Park Avenue Tunnel, which was temporarily transformed into an art exhibition on Aug. 3 in New York City. Part of New York City's Summer Streets program, people were able to walk through the 1,300 foot-long tunnel to experience a voice-activated light show. Artist and creator Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is known for his large-scale interactive art.
Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Kevin Grossstueck performs in the 2013 German Pole Dancing Championships on Aug. 3 in Frankfurt, Germany. Thirty-four candidates, including six men and three children, competed in the event.
Image: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images
Hotel porters run with suitcases during the Waiters' Derby on Aug. 4 in Berlin, Germany. At the annual event, reinstated in 2011 on the 125th anniversary of the Kurfuerstendamm, a main shopping thoroughfare, waiters, porters, cooks and bartenders run a 400-meter track while performing their regular occupational duties. The event was created to bring a sense of normal life back to Berlin after World War II under the Allies.
Image: Adam Berry/Getty Images
Hundreds of anti-government protesters gather for a rally on Aug. 4 in downtown Bangkok, Thailand. Protesting against the current government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the anti-government group has named itself the "People's Army," a coalition of ultra-royalist and nationalist groups.
Image: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
A visitor looks at items during a press preview of the "Out of the Ordinary" sale at Christie's Auction House on Aug. 5 in London, England.
Image: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
The World Wildlife Fund displays 1,600 styrofoam panda-bear sculptures in front of the Hauptbahnhof railway station on Aug. 5 in Berlin, Germany. The WWF celebrated its 50th anniversary, and sought to draw attention to the fact that only 1,600 panda bears remain in the wild. The display will soon travel to 25 other cities in Germany.
Image: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
A general view of atmosphere, fashion and crowds at the Hard Summer Festival at Los Angeles State Historic Park on Aug. 4 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Image: Gabriel Olsen/FilmMagic
Revelers wearing only their underwear dance in Times Square in an attempt to break a Guinness Book of World Records' record for "the most amount of people gathered in their underwear in the Times Square section of New York" on Aug. 5 in New York City. Organizers were hoping to get 2,271 people to strip down to their underwear; the current record is 2,270.
Image: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Pet mice ride on mouse-sized toy skateboards in a mouse-sized skate park built by Shane Willmott in his backyard on Aug. 2 on the Gold Coast, Australia.
Image: Tim Marsden/Newspix via Getty Images
A mastermind assistant of the Lima Merpati group practices potehi puppetry before the show at Hong Tek Hian Temple on Aug. 6 in Surabaya, Indonesia. The traditional potehi puppet shows of southern China are critically endangered today, but they perform regularly in temple, as requested by the Tri Dharma people.
Image: Robertus Pudayanto/Getty Images
A beef burger created by stem cells harvested from a living cow is held by Dutch scientist Mark Post in London, UK, on Aug. 6. The five-ounce burger, which cost more than €250,000 ($332,000) to produce, was developed by Maastricht University's Post, with funding from Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
Image: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Performances take place on stage during the opening ceremony of the 49th IAAF Congress at Gostiny Dvor on Aug. 6 in Moscow, Russia.
Image: Julian Finney/Getty Images
People crowd the beach, as the Boardmasters pro-surfing competition takes place on Fistral Beach on Aug. 7 in Newquay, England. Since 1981, the Boardmasters surfing competition -- part of a larger five-day surf, skate and music festival -- has been an integral part of the British surf scene.
Image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Visitors view the Leipzig 1813 exhibition By Yadegar Asisi, a 360-degree panorama that portrays the Battle of Nations, on Aug. 7 in Leipzig, Germany.
Image: Hannelore Foerster/Getty Images
Indonesian Muslims hold a Rukyatul Hilal to see the new crescent moon that determines the end of Ramadan at Condro Dipo Hill on Aug. 7 in Gresik, Indonesia. There have been confirmed sightings of the new moon, which ends the holy month of Ramadan with the Muslim holiday, Eid al-Fitr.
Image: Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images
A street entertainer performs on Edinburgh's Royal Mile during the city's Festival Fringe on Aug. 7 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival runs from August 2 to 26, and is one of the largest arts festivals in the world, dating back to 1947.
Image: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Villagers take part in the Right To Food campaign during a dharna protest for amendments in the Food Security Ordinance at Jantar Mantar on Aug. 7 in New Delhi, India. The much-touted Food Security Bill, which proposes to give three-fourths of the country's population the right to highly subsidized food, was introduced in the Lok Sabha today.
Image: Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Muslims pray during mass to celebrate Eid al-Fitr on Aug. 8 in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. The two-day holiday marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, and begins after the sighting of a new crescent moon.
Image: Putu Sayoga/Getty Images
A strike of lightning illuminates the sky behind a wind turbine above a field of sunflowers near Sieversdorf, Germany, on Aug. 8.
Image: Patrick Pleul/AFP/Getty Images
Delhi police use water cannons on medical students and doctors during their Save the Doctor campaign, organized under the Indian Medical Association and the Association of Healthcare Providers India at Jantar Mantar on Aug. 8 in New Delhi, India. The doctors are protesting against the government's decision to make one-year rural postings compulsory for medical students applying for post-graduation entrance exams.
Image: Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Farmers demonstrate during a protest against genetically modified crops and the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill on Aug. 8 in New Delhi, India. Hundreds of farmers from various states called for a ban on genetically modified crops, and demonstrated against the BRAI Bill, which would establish a statutory agency to regulate matters related to GM organisms.
Image: Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Children from Egypt take part in the Refugee Youth Summer Academy's international food and culture day on Aug. 8 in New York City. The six-week program, run by the International Rescue Committee, is designed to help immerse newly arrived students in an American school, and prepare them for the upcoming school year.
Image: John Moore/Getty Images
Doves fly over the Peace Statue at the Peace Memorial Park in Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 9, as the city marks the 68th anniversary of the bombing. At 11:02 a.m. on Aug. 9, 1945, the explosion of an atomic bomb devastated Nagasaki, which killed 70,000 people in the southern port city, three days after the world's first atomic attack on Hiroshima.
Image: JIJI Press/AFP/Getty Images
A bust whose surface is completely covered in electronics junk stands next to a vintage Commodore computer at the electronics-repair shop owned by Muharrem Batman in the Neukoelln district in Berlin, Germany on Aug. 8. Batman has created a wide variety of busts and even full-body sculptures whose outer surfaces are nearly completely covered in electronics capacitors, resistors, bits of circuit boards, CPUs, wiring, keyboards and other scrap he has salvaged from old computers and devices.
Image: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
A woman looks at roses of Sharon, South Korea's national flower, during the National Flower Festival at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul on Aug. 9. The Korea Forest Service organized the festival to mark the 68th anniversary of the liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean peninsula.
Image: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images
Hot air balloonists prepare to take part in the Bristol International Balloon Festival in southwest England, on Aug. 9. The yearly meeting includes balloonists from all over the world for what is the largest balloon event in Europe.
Image: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images
Teams compete in the Doom Bar London Beach Rugby tournament in the Covent Garden Piazza on Aug. 9 in London, England. Over 100 tonnes of sand have been imported into the piazza for the 26-team, two-day competition.
Image: Matthew Lloyd/Getty Images
A man peers out of a manhole in a bronze sculpture called Cumil the Peeper, in a pedestrian zone of the old town center on Aug. 8 in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. Made by Viktor Hulik, this sculpture is thought to be the most popular and most photographed attraction in the Slovak capital.
Image: Gabriel Kuchta/isifa/Getty Images
A statue of Pee Wee Reese (pictured left) and Jackie Robinson stands after being cleaned of racist graffiti on Aug. 9 in the Coney Island neighborhood of the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Robinson broke the color barrier for Major League Baseball in 1947 when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, and Reese was a teammate and supporter. The statue, which was unveiled in 2005, was recently defaced with racist graffiti, and the city recently finished restoring the statue using sandblasting and power-washing to remove the graffiti.
Image: Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Image: Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images