After Masataka Yoshida hit a home run to give the Boston Red Sox a 5-2 lead over the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday, a conversation about choreographed home run celebrations broke out in the NESN broadcast booth.
And somehow that led to a subtle shot being taken at the Seattle Mariners home run celebrations, despite Seattle being tied for 25th in the league with only 13 home runs so far this season.
“Come up with it sort of on the fly,” said Dave O’Brien. “As opposed to what some teams are doing like, ‘Hey, hand the guy a trident that we had an engineer 3,000 miles away create in a lab somewhere and mail to you.'”
"Come up with it sort of on the fly. As opposed to what some teams are doing. 'Hey, hand the guy a trident that we had an engineer 3,000 miles away create in a lab somewhere.'"
Dave O'Brien on HR celebrations, with a not-so-subtle shot at the Mariners.
(H/T @SuperSweetCards) pic.twitter.com/ql14AMaUq9
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 14, 2024
Apparently, home run celebrations need to be pre-approved by play-by-play announcers.
If you’re unfamiliar with Seattle’s tradition, the Mariners bring out a replica Aquaman trident—purchased from Amazon, mind you—and bestow it on whoever has just hit one out of the ballpark. As the Mariners have embraced it as their home run prop, it was something that was come up with on the fly, according to shortstop J.P Crawford.
Crawford said that last season, inspired by other teams’ creative celebrations, the Mariners felt they needed something, too. And in bypassing complex solutions, they found a great idea online. Setting itself apart from the usual plastic props, the Mariners’ trident celebration uses a hefty metal replica, prioritizing authenticity over ease.
“A lot of teams are doing hats and stuff like that, and we wanted to be a little bit different,” Mariners infielder Sam Haggerty said via MLB.com. “And then we wanted to tie in like, the Mariners, the city, and the trident just came out organically.”
While that doesn’t exactly sound like something came up on the fly, it’s not like they had to do some extensive research to come up with a trident. For the first 10 seasons of the franchise’s existence, their main logo was an upside-down trident representing an “M,” so there’s some history there.
Sure, the hefty metal trident might be a splurge, but Seattle didn’t need a fancy engineer from Boston to dream it up. O’Brien was clearly having some fun there. At the same time, it’s not like this is somehow inauthentic or unoriginal; they’re just keeping tradition. And while you can want a home run celebration to be different every season, the Mariners found something that’s uniquely authentic to their team and their city.
O’Brien seems to have a point, but it doesn’t seem to necessarily apply to the Mariners.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.