Friday’s Hot Clicks: Reds Reliever Wore His Own Jersey for Themed Road Trip

Reds pitcher Amir Garrett’s favorite athlete is St. John’s forward Amir Garrett.

Joe Sargent/Getty Images | Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

He’s his own favorite player

Themed road trips are a classic way to keep players from losing their minds during a long baseball season. Joe Maddon’s Cubs are known for particularly absurd gimmicks like an Anchorman theme or having everybody wear onesies. 

The Reds kept things simple for their short trip to Pittsburgh, asking players just to wear a sports jersey. 

Most guys had pretty tame choices. You see a whole lot of NFL jerseys. Joey Votto repped his hometown Raptors. Aristedes Aquino has only been in the majors for three weeks and I guess most of his stuff is still in Louisville, so he just wore his own jersey.  

Look closely at the left side of the photo, though, and you’ll see a tall guy rocking the only college hoops jersey of the bunch. That’s relief pitcher Amir Garrett wearing the St. John’s basketball jersey of... Amir Garrett. Why? Because Garrett is his own favorite player, of course. 

You can’t argue with that logic. You also have to congratulate Garrett for being able to squeeze into a shirt he hadn’t worn in six years. 

The strangest day in Fenway history

The Red Sox and Royals played a grand total of 12 minutes of baseball yesterday afternoon. 

The teams’ meeting on Aug. 7 was suspended with the score tied at 4 and nobody out in the top of the 10th. It was Kansas City’s last trip of the season to Boston, so the teams had to find another time to finish the game. They settled on Thursday and the Royals flew up from Baltimore on their way out to Cleveland for a weekend set against the Indians. 

Admission to the park was free for fans 18 and under, while everyone else had to make a $5 donation to the Jimmy Fund. Concession prices were slashed, with hot dogs going for just $1. 

The action picked up where it left off two weeks ago and Boston’s Josh Taylor got three quick outs to keep the game tied. The third batter of the inning, Bubba Starling, was a pinch hitter because Billy Hamilton was cut by the Royals between when the game was halted and when it resumed. 

In the bottom of the inning, Brock Holt roped one into the leftfield corner to walk it off and the day was over. 

What a disaster in Winnipeg

The Packers-Raiders preseason game in Canada could not have gone much worse. 

First of all, nobody bought tickets. Those who did show up were treated to a farcical game played on an 80-yard field. 

The decision to shorten the field was made due to complications from the playing surface being too big. The field is typically home to a CFL team, which plays on a 150-yard field (110 yards between the goal lines, with 20-yard end zones). Moving the CFL goalposts left big holes in the NFL end zones, which became an immediate concern. 

NFL, #Packers and game officials check out the “hole” in the end zone before #Raiders game. pic.twitter.com/N8JBhBAYx2

— Paul Gutierrez (@PGutierrezESPN) August 22, 2019

Eventually everybody decided it would be best to shorten the field. 

That led to bizarre scenes like this, with a guy catching a touchdown at the five-yard line. 

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A good song

Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.