Most Elaborate Athlete Pranks

Brett Myers and the Phillies organization got Kyle Kendrick pretty bad recently when they set up a prank to tell him he was traded to Japan.

http://www.bugsandcranks.com/philadelphia-phillies/brett-myers-is-the-new-ashton-kootcher/


What other pranks come to mind that you have seen or heard athletes pull?

 

Not necessarily elaborate, but well-executed:

One year in the 1970s -- don't know if it was pre- or post-wife swap -- Mike Kekich was telling his New York Yankee teammates during a series in Milwaukee about what a great waterbed bargain he found in town.

On getaway day, before the game, the waterbed mattress was hanging from the center-field flag pole at County Stadium, a big gray rubber thing flapping in the breeze.

 

It's too bad they couldn't wait to get him to the airport before he got there, realized the flights didn't exist and then got a text message or something from Myers that said to come back, they were kidding.

It would be too elaborate and too much of a distraction, but that would have been extreme.

And the look on Kendrick's face after he realized it was made up was priceless. You could tell he had absolutely no desire whatsoever to play in Japan.

 

I once saw a guy get hit in the face with a shaving-cream pie during an interview.

Athletes are so funny! LOLZ!

 

Roman Ndur had people thinking that he was a defenseman.

 

Athlete, football, Kentucky, same sentence....hmm

 

There was a pretty elaborate one that Rick Manning pulled on Dennis Eckersley in the '70s.

 

Remember Calvin Schiraldi, Bob Stanley and Bill Buckner? Yeah, they were in on it.

 

In Jim Bouton's Ball Four (my favorite book, it's why I constantly refer to it on here), pitcher Fred Talbot got victimized twice while with the Seattle Pilots. In the first prank, Talbot's roommate had a cop friend deliver a notice of a paternity suit to Talbot in the clubhouse. Talbot was shitting bricks so back, his roommate eventually had to tell him to get him off the ledge.

The second prank was done by Bouton. Talbot homered in a designated inning (this was back before the DH), and won a radio listener $25,000 (remember, this is 1969, so it was huge money). Bouton sent Talbot a fake telegram from the prize winner, saying that Talbot would be sent $5,000. Bouton purposely mispelled Talbot's name to make it look legit. Talbot fell for it and for several days kept talking about what he would do with the money. Bouton eventually told him accidentally.

 

Donald Dubois was the HR contest winner.

 

The guy you might be thinking of is Jeff Francoeur back in 2005 after he hit his first career homerun. Marcus Giles ran up during the post game interview and hit him in the face with a shaving cream pie.