There are few things you can do in sports that’s cooler than robbing a home run, but on Tuesday night Mariners star center fielder Julio Rodriguez managed to make an already incredibly cool act even better when he tricked the entire stadium into thinking he had missed the ball.
After Fernando Tatis Jr. smoked a ball to center field, Rodriguez went over the wall to try and catch it, but when he came back he had his glove closed looking dejected. However, as he strode back towards the field, he picked his glove up and opened it, with a big grin coming across his face, revealing the baseball.
.@JRODshow44 just fooled EVERYONE 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/2rL2a1mheD
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) August 9, 2023
It’s an incredible bit of showmanship from Rodriguez, and I really want to know if he’s thought about doing this the next time he robs someone or if this was spur of the moment. Either way it’s incredible, but if it’s the latter it’s really an amazing job of playing off the natural excitement that comes from making that kind of play. The best part is him tricking his own pitcher into thinking he just gave up a home run, while also forcing Tatis to do like half of his home run trot before taking the long walk back to the dugout.
