Nobody loves life as a baseball player quite like Mets third baseman Eduardo Escobar. Before joining Team Venezuela for the World Baseball Classic, the evidence was clear in Port St. Lucie.
He’s probably still having a good time during the WBC. After all, Venezuela is 4-0 ahead of a win-or-go-home matchup against Team USA on Saturday. And while he’s definitely enjoying himself in the clubhouse, he’s had to keep his head on a swivel.
Fellow Venezuelan and former Dbacks teammate, David Peralta, came to the WBC with one goal in mind. He planned on pranking Escobar as much as possible. It’s been working.
For whatever reason, Escobar has a phobia of cats. Naturally, that’s all his teammates have been doing to prank him throughout the duration of the tournament. Here are all the instances I could find of it happening.
Eduardo Escobar has been on the record from his time in Arizona as being afraid of cats.
Team Venezuela – led by former teammate David Peralta – have been pranking him with cat noises ?
(via IG/davidperalta.6) pic.twitter.com/XRJ8EA6SBR
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) March 14, 2023
Eduardo Escobar is terrified by cats.
All week, the team has been messing with him. He’s just chillin, playing on his drum, and they keep making him think there are cats.
Then he just goes back to vibing on the drum ?? pic.twitter.com/bza28fdf1C
— Shawn Spradling (@Shawn_Spradling) March 15, 2023
? A Eduardo Escobar lo tienen loco con el gato. pic.twitter.com/F2LesXL8wo
— Edgard González (@edgarddeportes) March 17, 2023
Eduardo Escobar is scared of cats, and Team Venezuela keeps startling him with a stuffed one pic.twitter.com/jhbUn49T3q
— Zach Buchanan (@ZHBuchanan) March 17, 2023
That last one is my favorite. Caught him so off guard he literally almost dropped the bag in his hands. The frequency of these pranks reminds me of Adrian Beltre and how he hated getting his head touched.
You’d think by now he’d realize anytime there’s a “cat” or he hears any kind of cat sound while he’s with his teammates that it’s just a joke. But his natural fight-or-flight feeling kicks in.
Honestly, they’re probably only still doing it because Escobar’s reactions are just fantastic. I don’t know if any of his Mets teammates knew about his fear of cats, but they do now. And if they somehow don’t, Omar Narvaez will hopefully bring it back to PSL with him since he’s also on Team Venezuela.
Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
