When a baseball player has a historic game, the ball often goes on his mantle, the bat often goes to the Hall of Fame, the jersey often goes up for auction, etc.
The sliding shorts, however, typically go in the laundry.
But after Cincinnati Reds utility man Scooter Gennett whacked four home runs in a game—a wildly improbable event—he sent radio host Dan Patrick his game-used, unwashed undergarment, signed with a personalized note. Patrick gleefully showed off his souvenir in the studio Thursday.
There’s some background here, of course. Gennett appeared on Patrick’s show last week, the morning after his incredible four-home run day, and explained that he’d gotten to keep his jersey and hat, while most of his other gear went to Cooperstown. Patrick jokingly asked for Gennett’s sliding shorts or protective cup, to which Gennett replied “I have the sliders. I think that’s the only thing they didn’t get from me. So if you want them, you got them.” Gennett offered to wash the sliding shorts but Patrick said he wanted them to “smell like four home runs.”
Gennett then demanded something in return, and Patrick offered up a used tie from Football Night in America, which will apparently be forthcoming.
And so forever, Dan Patrick’s “man cave” will feature a pair of sweaty, dirty sliding shorts, courtesy of one of baseball’s most unlikely ever stat lines.
