SI

Phillies Found Most Creative Way to Figure Out Fantasy Football Draft Order

This is genius.

Tim Capurso

Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott before a game against the Houston Astros at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday, August 27, 2024.
Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Bryson Stott before a game against the Houston Astros at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday, August 27, 2024. / Screengrab Twitter @MLB
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Bystanders who didn't know any better would have thought the Philadelphia Phillies, trading Louisville Sluggers for golf clubs before Tuesday's game against the Houston Astros, were practicing for a team outing to the links.

No, the Phillies had a much funnier reason for bringing out the golf clubs.

They were determining the order of the draft in the team's fantasy football league. One-by-one, the Phillies, playing closest to the pin, which in this case was team physical therapist Alex Plum dressed in catcher's gear, stepped up to the plate at Citizens Bank Park and took their swings.

"Plum was our golf pin," Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs told Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. "He did not volunteer. He was volunteered."

The idea, as the players explained to Coffey, was first cooked up by former Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins, who is now a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. Hoskins's brainchild has since been expanded upon to include the, er, human pin.

Ultimately, Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto, an avid golfer who participated in the Farmer's Insurance Pro Am at Torrey Pines in January of 2024, won the contest, and the fantasy football draft's top pick.

The Oakland Athletics also found a creative way to determine their fantasy football draft order, playing some sort of strange version of Bocce ball from the upper deck at the Oakland Coliseum.

Never change, guys.

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Tim Capurso

TIM CAPURSO

Tim Capurso is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in November 2023, he wrote for RotoBaller and ClutchPoints, where he was the lead editor for MLB, college football and NFL coverage. A lifelong Yankees and Giants fan, Capurso grew up just outside New York City and now lives near Philadelphia. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, exercising and spending time with his family, including his three-legged cat Willow, who, unfortunately, is an Eagles fan.

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