Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux is well-known as one of Major League Baseball’s all-time pranksters, and his latest target was Cubs star third baseman Kris Bryant. Luckily for Bryant, it wasn’t one of Maddux’s more vulgar pranks like peeing on someone’s leg in the shower, and instead was a hidden identity prank.
Bryant went out to his hometown of Las Vegas for a Red Bull promotional shoot and Maddux donned a wig, beard and fake gut to be the sound guy. Bryant explained his training routine when he’s back home at his old high school (even mentioning that Maddux is an alum he looked up to), while Maddux prodded him by making requests for him to do something different because the sound was messing up.
Once on the field to shoot Bryant taking batting practice, Maddux told Bryant to “try and hit it off the barrel” before the BP pitcher took a fake call that he had to run off and run study hall. In need of some more shots, the disguised Maddux insisted he could throw to Bryant, who was wary of standing in at the plate with a random sound guy throwing at him.
Watching Bryant trying to understand how the sound guy could be so good as a pitcher was hilarious, especially when he couldn’t handle the Maddux curveball. Maddux threw nasty curveballs and when Bryant would watch one go by through the zone, Maddux would shrug and go “that was a strike.” He would also hilariously call “warning track” in a deadpan without even looking when Bryant would just mishit the ball.
Afterwards, Maddux asked for a signed bat and said “make it out to Greg Maddux,” revealing his identity. The best part of the whole video, though, comes after the reveal when Bryant asks if Maddux really wants his bat, causing Maddux to laugh and say, “no.” This is one of the best hidden identity prank commercials we’ve seen, up there with the original Uncle Drew ads for creating legitimate confusion from the subjects of the prank.
