When a fan threw back Giancarlo Stanton’s home run ball, the New York Yankees outfielder responded with a hilarious “Rookie of the Year” clip.
The New York Yankees game at Fenway Park on Saturday night was supposed to be meaningless. New York and the Boston Red Sox are both locked into their postseason roles, both with home field advantage.
But then, a Giancarlo Stanton homer made its way into the Green Monster seats, and, as tradition dictates, the fan who caught the ball chucked it back onto the field.
This dude caught Giancarlo Stanton’s dinger in the green monster, chucked it back and hit him rounding second. Legendary. pic.twitter.com/QkSazmYA5r
— Kent (@RealKentMurphy) September 29, 2018
The guy didn’t just toss it onto the left field warning track, though. No, he gunned it as far as he could, hitting Stanton on one hop as he jogged around second base.
Stanton just smiled and pointed out toward the stands.
It wasn’t long before the comparisons to the famous “Rookie of the Year” scene started pouring in from fans and the media. Stanton even posted an Instagram video with the Yankees slugger perfectly spliced into the popular baseball flick:
“That’s the idea when you’re an opposing fan, but I don’t think that’s what he meant to do,” Stanton told ESPN’s Coley Harvey after the game. “Either way, if I was looking up, I could’ve grabbed it easily.”
Stanton also poked a bit of fun at the fan for throwing back the Yankees’ record 266th home run of the season.
“It happens all the time at our stadium, so not too worried about it,” he said. “Plus, that could be a special ball. We needed it anyway. I think he lost some money, possibly, on it.”
The fan, Andrew Lastrapes from Athens Georgia, said he did not mean to hit Stanton. He and the friend who attended the game with him are not even Red Sox fans.
“Literally the last thing that we were talking about on that pitch was if a Yankee hits a homer…we have to throw it back,” said Lastrapes, according to Harvey. “We’re Braves fans. We could care [less] about the game.”
Red Sox security removed Lastrapes from the game, but that’s a small price to pay for legend status.
