MLB Sandlot: The Best Charity Game Ever.
A Charity Game For The Ages, that’s what we saw on a warm Saturday night in Phoenix. A group of professional ball players got together to play the game they love as if they were kids again. This is a recap of that game and it all starts with a draft.
The draft was a simple yet stressful affair for those involved. Picking teams were San Diego Padres outfielder Tommy Pham and former Dodger and legendary closer Eric Gagne. First pick went to Gagne who took Trevor Bauer. For Tommy Pham’s first pick he took Derek Dietrich and the draft was on from there with last pick being Cleveland Indians standout Mike Clevinger who was dubbed “Mr. Irrelevant” by the opposing team.
The teams eventually looked something like this
Team Gagne |
Team Pham |
Trevor Bauer |
Derek Dietrich |
Logan Allen |
Arthur Warren |
DJ “Jet” Johnson |
Christian Arroyo |
Keynan Middleton |
Jacob Faria |
Casey Sadler |
Oscar Mercado |
Mike Clevinger |
Zach Plesac |
After the “draft” concluded Derek Dietrich was asked how he was feeling. His response was the first of many wonderful lines that came out of this game;
“Now that we got the teams out the way it’s time to get swingin here and get playin. That was a long process, the draft is no joke man. It’s a life changing experience, I went through it twice, I never wanna do it again.” He continued as he walked away; “Shout out to the Astros drafting me way back! Sorry bout it! Bangin! On the trash-cans.”
After the teams were established it was time to set the rules. They decided on a variation based on the “over the line” rule-set. Offensively there are no baserunners, clean catches only for outs, and you could only pull the ball, going oppo was an automatic out. This led to a more relaxed and social game than a regular baseball game.
After the rules were set it was time to get playing. The game moved along fast as it was played in under an hour. The sheer joy you could hear in these players voices though and the kid-like exuberance they played with was refreshing to see. All the players were mic’d up and it led to some pretty interesting observations.
The first one is players are all still very very salty about the Astros. More than once you’d hear a trash-cans reference, coach Pham at one point after something was said to him responded with; “Hey just like the Astros, if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying.”
Mike Clevinger said in regards to the 2017 World Series; “That was the best irrelevant series in baseball history, I think.”
Trevor Bauer at one point even tried to help out his teammate Dj “Jet” Johnson by banging on a trash-can for him during his at-bat. It didn’t seem to work though as “Jet” Johnson made an out anyways.
The other takeaway was just how much fun this was for everyone involved. To see this side of the game and the personalities on display was a extremely humanizing experience. For example when Clevinger took the mound the game was 0-0 and after giving up the first run of the game he was immediately roasted but you could hear the love in it. Late in the game Team Pham broke it open off pitch from Keynon Middleton when Arthur Warren sent a three-run shot to left-field. This led to my favorite exchange of the night which came from Mike Clevinger and Derek Dietrich. As Dietrich made his way to the plate for the second time that inning-after hitting the lead-off triple to start the rally-Clevinger yells from the infield; “Do you just bat twice a inning every inning or just now?” Dietrich response solidified my newfound fandom for the man; “No, just cause we a batted through. We’re just crushing right now.”
The game ended soon thereafter with team Pham getting the win. The game MVP was Seattle Mariners pitcher Arthur “Benny the Jet” Warren. Who upon being named MVP was awarded a giant bottle of hand-sanitizer which he promptly shared around.
My last takeaway from this is just how good content like this is for the game. This is the fun that makes kids and adults want to get up and go play catch or get a game going. Baseball is supposed to be fun and sometimes that aspect gets lost during the season. Seeing a group of pros out there doing what they love to do and just being themselves having fun in this time of worry and heartache was the shining light baseball needed in this dark time.
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