Tim Byrdak Turns Mets Spring Training Into A With Leather Update

I’ve divided this post into two helpful sections.

For Normal People: Relief pitcher (and possible Super Mario Bros. villain) Tim Byrdak decided to have a little fun at New York Mets spring training camp by putting on some underwear, growing a Fu Manchu mustache and running around flexing his muscles for the Brian Wilsonic enjoyment of all. According to Byrdak-Hogan (Hodak?), he’s got a big wrestling match with Andre the Giant and he’s gonna rip off his “freakin’ face”.

From Big League Stew:

But Byrdak couldn’t claim in good faith that he was just being an instructor because he enjoys having a bit of fun in the clubhouse. He dressed up like a football referee before a game last season and handed out penalties to teammates. He even started re-growing his Hulkster goatee before the season because he thought it’d look cool on photo day.

“I just want to let these younger guys know that it’s OK to have fun and that spring training doesn’t need to be so serious,” he said.

It does look like fun, but here’s to hoping he doesn’t have to field any grounders in those short-pants. You can check out video of the costume (and his excellent promo skills) below:

And now, part 2.

For Wrestling Fans: You have one of three reactions to this:

1. “NYAH HEE HEE NYAH HEE HEE HULK HOGAN”

2. Ugh, Hulk Hogan sucks, if he wanted to be 80s ironic he should’ve dressed as the Macho Man, or The Ultimate Warrior for maximum lulz.

3. There is too much wrong with his portrayal of Hogan for me to enjoy this fully.

Okay, four reactions.

4. Give it a star rating, review it on YouTube, complain about how it isn’t as good as it used to be.

My reaction, somewhat predictably, is number 3. Byrdak isn’t being Hogan as much as he’s being society’s idea of Hogan. For starters, Hogan wore bright-ass yellow trunks, not red. Somewhere near the end of the video he stops to do the Hogan pose, quips “oh yeah!” and runs away. “Oh yeah”, of course, is one of Randy Savage’s signature phrases, not Hogan’s. I’ve also got to question why Hogan would want to rip off Andre the Giant’s face, but Hogan was on a lot of coke in the 80s so maybe I just missed that promo.

If he wanted to be super accurate, he’d have a different Mets reliever run in with a chair and hit him gently in the forehead so he could collapse to the ground and cut himself in front of everybody.

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