Baseball's Top Pranks

Over the past few years, I've seen and heard some pretty hilarious baseball tales, such as David Cone's ridiculous libido and propensity for bullpen masturbation. There's also a seemingly endless list of hilarious baseball injuries. In this vein, I present you the eleven funniest baseball pranks (that I know of).

11. Moon Shot
Apparently, it is an annual tradition at the Metronome for former pitching great Bert Blyleven to moon the team during the team photo.

10. R-O-C-C-O
When you're as bad as the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays were from 1997-2007, you gotta do something to maintain a positive attitude. In 2003, the Rays replaced rookie teammate Rocco Baldelli's jersey with one that said "ROCCO" on the back. Oblivious to this switch, the Rays got the crowd to chant and cheer ROCCO for a full inning. The prank ended when the homeplate umpire burst into tears of laughter during one of Baldelli's at bats, calling for a time out because Baldelli needed to "inspect his uniform."

09. Fishy Foulplay
According to the book Ball Four by Jim Bouton, Orioles pitchers Eddie Watt and Pete Richert once snuck into the visitor bullpen during a game and put four live fish in the Seattle Pilot's water cooler. The bullpen coach was so pissed off that he threatened to protest the game to the commissioner.

08. Rick's A Dick
Cubs pitcher Rick Sutcliffe once sent the team's 8 year old batboy out to home plate to ask the umpire if he had the key to the batter's box.

07. "Fan Appreciation Day"
On the last day of the 1992 season, Joe Carter and the Blue Jays announced that they were "giving away" a car to a lucky ticketholder in honor of fan appreciation day. Too bad that car happened to belong to rookie CF Derek Bell.

06. Will Ohman gets his shit rocked by Ryan Dempster
Prior to the 2005 baseball season, Will Ohman put eyeblack on teammate Ryan Dempster's hat and superglued his clothes in a feeble prank attempt. Dempster responded in kind by removing all four tires from Ohman's car, hiding them around the spring training facility, and placing the tireless car body up on cinder blocks in the middle of the outfield.

05. Don't lend money to Ken Griffey Jr.
Unless you want to get paid back in pennies, one should never lend money to Ken Griffey Jr.

04. "The Great Double-A Potato Swap"
In the summer of 1987, minor leaguer Dave Bresnahan, distraught with his team's awful performance, decided to lighten up the clubhouse mood by secretly replacing the game ball with a potato that he whittled to look like a baseball ball. The result was a bad pitch and potato explosion that looked like a passed ball. The runner on third attempted to advance, only to be tagged out by Besnahan and the real baseball.

03. The curious case of Sidd Finch
How many of you have heard of Mets pitcher Sidd Finch? In 1985, the Mets organization and SI writer George Plimpton pulled the greatest April Fool's joke in the history of sports on Major League Baseball. Plimpton extensively profiled a fictional fireballer by the name of Sidd Finch in the April edition of Sports Illustrated, claiming the New York Mets had signed a prospect whose fastball topped off at 168 MPH. SI even hired a High School teacher to pose for the article as the made-up hurler, while the Mets provided them him an authentic uniform. Following the article's publication, several GM's contacted the commissioner of the league to protest the unfairness of the signing and demanded that he be refused entry into the Major League farm system.

02. Do not cross the Cubs pitching staff
I can't even begin to summarize this prank without losing the article's comical effect.

01. Kyle Kendrick is punked by Brett Meyers
The video speaks for itself. Enjoy!