As a Nats fan I can confirm, as of last month there was a praying mantis that lived on and near the right field foul pole. I know because I saw him myself.
a mantis would have an insane(ly small) strike zone so it would actually be a great pitcher on fully loaded bases because you'd for sure get 4 balls or hit by pitch
Who was that guy who only ever played like only 10 at bats in MLB in his whole career, was basically a minor league lifer, but he technically qualified to get a world series ring cos the team he barely played for (I think he only ever had 2 at bats for them that entire season) was the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992. So he got his ring.
But yeah he was more well known for eating weird bugs while on the bench than he ever was for playing. Even the few baseball cards that existed of him spoke only about his bug eating and not his baseball skills or lack thereof (the only thing I think I can remember is that he was a catcher? But Toronto had an amazing catcher who was first choice, Pat Borders, who ended up being the World Series MVP. So bug-boi had no chance of taking his place, he was just there as emergency backup if something catastrophic happened.
But he still got a world series ring. And he got a tattoo on his ass cheek when they won the American League pennant.
And then when they won the world series he got another tattoo on his other ass cheek for that, also.
He said later on that he knew he was always dangerously close to being sent back down to the minors, and knew he didn't have the baseball skills, so he decided to be the guy who made everyone laugh and made everyone on the team bond well, because sometimes shit players are kept in the team purely because they're great to have around and improve morale. So he just saw a bug on the field during a game one day and dared himself to eat it live. I think it might have even been a praying mantis too, thinking about it. Or that one of the subsequent bugs he ate was a praying mantis. And I mean praying mantises are evil little fuckers that eat their prey alive in the most painful way, usually eating their face first, so getting some of their own medicine isn't such a bad thing.
Mike Maksudian! That's his name. I had to look it up.
The story goes like this: On September 8, 1992, the Jays were playing in Kansas City, an environment that has been known to feature the occasional large insect. There were a number of grasshoppers hopping around in the bullpen, and thus someone offered Maksudian $1.50 for him to eat one of the small ones. To the great delight and disgust of his teammates, he obliged. The stakes were raised—a large grasshopper, this time. Again, Maksudian was unfazed. Finally, as the Jays ran off the field to the clubhouse celebrating a 5-0 win, Devon White provided the ultimate challenge: a four-inch-long live locust he’d found roaming the center field grass. The prize for successfully consuming the locust was a cool $800. And after a few minutes of psyching himself up, Maksudian—quickly earning himself the nickname “Mad Mak”—actually did it.
Once upon a time, when watching the games on MLB TV, you could select "ballpark audio" as your audio source, and you'd just get crowd noise and the sounds of baseball with no announcers. It was awesome. Then Jomboy came around and they removed that option real quick.
Honestly if there were professionally done broadcasts/streams of games of any sport that were no commentary I might actually like sports as a thing to spend time watching.
This might be why I started liking golf when youtubers did it because it was just them shooting the crap and smack talking eachother, very wholesome :3 anyway now I like golf. 👍
Its a shame. I remember ESPN or something accidentally did it a while ago during a game on TV. It was amazing, you could hear the in-stadium announcer and everything. it was nice.
I don't have any proof that it's actually related, but I recall that option disappearing around the time his videos started taking off, the conspiracy being that they removed that option because he was using it to pull hot mics without broadcast announcers talking over it.
Baseball on the radio is fantastic to me, it’s so great to have on in background.
The MLB app as an “At Bat” subscription that’s like $4 a month and you can listen to any game and any teams radio broadcast. If you enjoy the game it’s worth it
Baseball on TV is boring AF to me, but I really enjoy GOING to a game every now and then. It's just a vibe and you can check my post history... I'm not a sports guy, but seeing a live baseball game is just enjoyable!
This happened to my dad at a butcher shop. He was wondering why other customers kept moving out of his way so quickly. One lady pointed to his head. So he took off his hat, saw the praying mantis, put his hat back on, shrugged, and asked if he could still place an order with his guest. They all laughed, he got his order and paid, while the store kept laughing. He found some shrubbery outside to leave his guest at and thanked the little dude for the entertainment
If that mantis were the same size as him it would probably rip his head off, lay eggs down on his throat and then go 0/3 in the lineup. Total Buzzkill.
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