The Ultimate Dugout Pranks

We are now in the dog days of summer and baseball. The fun times of the trade deadline, the All-Star break and the amateur draft are behind us as we look forward to the fall classic. 

There are about 17 teams that have a shot at making the playoffs, leaving the rest to prepare for next year. It can be tough to make it through a 162-game season, so teams try to find ways to keep themselves entertained. Of course, there is no better place to find shenanigans at a baseball game than in the dugout. There have been countless bubblegum-on-hat pranks, but some have gotten a bit more creative. 

Getting Taped Up 

Earlier this month, multiple Toronto Blue Jays needed a way to quiet 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on his day off, so they went to the med bag and found some athletic tape to fix the problem. Guerrero Jr.’s teammates taped him into a corner of the dugout. Although the Blue Jays aren’t necessarily out of playoff contention, the team’s young core always finds ways to have fun. 

While the prank was creative, it wasn’t original. The Boston Red Sox employed the same strategy in 1999 with ace SP Pedro Martínez by taping him to the pole in the dugout toward the end of a game before the All-Star break. Not only is this the presumed first occurrence in which someone taped a player in a dugout, but the execution was impeccable. Retired SS Nomar Garciaparra and RHP Mark Portugal seemed like they knew what they were doing. Garciaparra finished the job with some extra tape around Martínez’s mouth to ensure silence from the All-Star pitcher. The broadcasters brought up the biggest concern of what would happen if a line drive came into the dugout. So, Garciaparra put a glove on his teammate’s shoulder for protection. Once the game ended, everyone got up and left the dugout, stranding Martínez. The Red Sox made the playoffs as the Wild Card team before losing in the ALCS to the New York Yankees in five games. 

The Red Sox resurrected the prank in September 2015 with rookie LHP Henry Owens. It’s one thing to prank the best player on your team, but it’s another to prank the new guy on the squad. Owens couldn’t move; a couple of layers of pre-wrap kept him from talking as well. 3B Pablo Sandoval eventually let Owens out of the tape prison before the third inning was over. This was the epitome of a team looking to stay entertained to finish out the year as the Red Sox ended the 2015 season last in the AL East with a 78-84 record. Unfortunately for Owens, he only made five more appearances in the big leagues in 2016 and left baseball two years later. 

Sano’s Fake Snake 

There have been plenty of instances when real animals stole the show on the field, but fake ones create great pranks in the dugout. In 2017, 3B Miguel Sanó scared the Minnesota Twins’ pitching coach during a May game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Right before the game, Sanó pulled out a snake while everyone was getting ready to play. When Allen came up to Sanó, he went to hand him the snake. The pitching coach jumped back into the arms of CF Byron Buxton. 

It seems like the Twins are in the playoffs one year and mediocre the next. The 2017 season was a good year for Minnesota, who finished second in the AL Central before losing to the Yankees in the AL Wild Card game. That season was also a good one for Sanó as he made his only All-Star team so far in his career. The scariest part of the prank was that the snake looked real for about a second during the close-up. Allen’s reaction is understandable. What would you do if a snake was almost handed to you?

Fire in the Dugout 

Gum is an essential tool for most dugout pranks. Gum helps stick paper cups on the hats of unsuspecting teammates, but it is also a significant component for the hot foot prank. This seems absurd, but it has happened a few times in MLB history. To complete the prank, one must stick a wad of gum to a handful of matches taped together onto the heel of a teammate’s cleat. Then the arsonist, I mean prankster, sets the matches on fire while the prankee walks around with their cleat in flames. This is at least the way 1B Adrián González chose to do the prank on OF Scott Van Slyke when the two were on the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2014. It took a little bit for Van Slyke to realize his cleat was on fire, but the best part of the whole situation was the Dodger’s TV broadcaster, Vin Scully, doing the play-by-play of the prank. This was within the last decade, so the Dodgers won the NL West that year, but they were in second when the incident took place. But, of course, when you play for the Dodgers, you can just have fun and wait for October to come around.

There are many ways to complete the hot foot prank with varying levels of success, from employing a piece of athletic tape to using a cotton ball with vaseline. RF Jay Buhner and the Seattle Mariners in the ‘90s were known for executing this prank. There were instances when players even went onto the field on fire and the game had to be paused. The Mariners may not have had much success in the playoffs, but they certainly were the kings of pranking. 

There are many other fun dugout pranks, such as pies to the face and even funky costumes, but these three types of antics might be the most famous. As the season winds down, pay attention to the dugouts for any more crazy shenanigans.

Cover photo courtesy of the Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) Twitter.