News
Briefly
Calendar of Events
Commentary
Opinions
Sports
Diversions
World News
Classifieds
Login
Letter Submission
Search
Archive
Publishing Policy
Mail Subscriptions
St. Cloud State University
College Publisher
Home
>
Sports
Pranks entertain Bats dugout
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Media Credit: Matthew Kaster
River Bats catcher Chris Denove and right-handed pitcher Craig Baker have formed a St. Cloud connection from their Golden State roots.
Peering underneath the River Bats dugout bench at Dick Putz Field about an hour before the first pitch of Tuesday night's game against Northwoods League opponent, the Wisconsin Woodchucks, Bats manager Tom Fleenor came to two conclusions.
"I don't think Baker is small enough to fit under there and I don't think Denove would want to get his uniform dirty," Fleenor said gazing out behind his sunglasses with a bit of sarcasm and a smile.
The two players that Fleenor is referring to are Bats pitcher Craig Baker and catcher Chris Denove. Both have become known around the Bats organization as team pranksters.
"I wouldn't say they're true masters of chicanery," Fleenor said. "They can't quite be put in that category of really good pranksters like the Roger McDowells or the Bert Blylevens. But they're young and they're working towards becoming good."
When it comes to the art of pranking other teammates, there's a few things that have been used numerous times that seem to work. Baker explains that a prank called "hot seat" is a popular prank pulled.
"That's where someone, usually Denove, crawls underneath the bench, puts a piece of tape underneath the place where the unsuspecting person is sitting and lights it on fire," Baker explains. "There's also the lighting of a piece of tape on someone's cleat on fire. It gets a little out of hand sometimes, but it's all in fun."
Denove remembers the first prank that Baker got him with after arriving from UCLA a few weeks after the season had started.
"When I first got here, Baker got me good with the 'water cup,'" he explained. "He came up to me, had me hold a glass of water and water poured out all over me."
After that prank, Denove actually did crawl underneath the bench, "desperate times call for desperate measures," he said and pulled a prank on Baker, one that he remembers well.
"Denove's got me a couple of times," Baker said. "I remember he went under the bench and burned a hole in my pants. That's when I called it quits."
Denove is more revealing when it comes to his favorite pranks he's pulled. He stated that his favorite prank he's pulled this season involved assistant coach Zach Huckabay and bucket of baseball's that sit on the steps of the Bats dugout.
"Huckabay was sitting on the bucket of balls and I found a phone cord in the back room," Denove said. "While he was sitting there, I wove the phone cord through his belt loop and tied it to the bucket without him knowing. The whole time he had no clue, so when he got up the whole bucket of balls came with him. That was a good one."
Other strange occurrences happen in the Bats dugout. In any inning, when the count is two balls, two strikes and two outs, Bats players do things with their hats as part of a small superstition. Baker said he picked up some of things the team does while attending school at Cal State-Northridge.
"Different guys have different things that we do on the 'twos,'" Baker said. "We have the 'roller coaster,' where everyone picks up their legs and they pretend they're on a roller coaster."
He stated they also get into the promotion that the River Bats run where if a certain batter from the other team strikes out, it's half price beer for the remaining of the inning. Baker said the team draws from a TV game show called "Press Your Luck," that had characters called "whammies" that would be bad for the contestant. He stated that when the "beer batter" has the two balls, two strikes count, the team starts to chant "beer!" There's also one called the campfire where all the players throw their hats in the middle and create a makeshift campfire. Baker said that was reserved for only big situations.
Denove's antics also draw laughs from people in the stands paying attention. During a recent game, the song "We Like to Party" by the Venga Boys blared over the P.A. system and out of nowhere Denove started dancing like Chris Pontius from MTV's "Jackass." His mom was is in the stands and, according to Denove, thought it was hilarious.
During a recent on-field promotion where two kids race from second base, throw on a River Bats uniform and then try to beat each other to home plate. Bats promotional coordinator Caitlin Lerfald was down a few races to counterpart Andrew Bauer and the recent race didn't look to be going Lerfald's way either. Denove, who had the night off, raced out to help the contestant. He managed to help the contestant win.
"It's my third year here, so I pretty much do what I want," a smiling Denove said. "I'd never done that and everyone deserves to win, Caitlin (and her contestant were) losing, so I figured I'd help them out."
Forum:
No comments have been posted for this story.
Post a comment
