Philadelphia Phillies star outfielder Nick Castellanos will perhaps always be tied to former Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Thom Brennaman after famously hitting a home run in the middle of his on-air apology for a homophobic slur. And on Sunday, Castellanos was once again linked to Brennaman, along with current U.S. President Joe Biden.
It has become a running joke amongst the baseball landscape that Castellanos simply finds a way to trump big news stories by hitting home runs. And on Sunday, we certainly received quite the news dump when Biden decided to end his bid for reelection.
We also learned on Sunday that Thom Brennaman would be returning to national broadcasting following his dismissal from Fox Sports in 2020. The former Red broadcaster will be calling college football games this coming fall for The CW.
Given Castellanos’ lengthy resume of overshadowing big news stories, it’s perhaps no surprise that he had an excellent game with multiple extra-base hits on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
His first at-bat after Biden announced his intention to drop out of the presidential race, Castellanos nearly left the yard, instead lacing a double into deep center field.
In his last at-bat of the game, Castellanos then fulfilled the prophecy with a home run in the top of the ninth inning off of Pirates reliever Josh Fleming.
As you may expect, there was quite a reaction to Castellanos’ big blast given the circumstances.
Funny enough, this home run from Castellanos didn’t catch all that many by surprise in terms of the betting markets. Countless bettors were quite aware of the Phillies slugger’s propensity to come up big whenever significant breaking news emerges, cashing in on home run prop bets.
Simply put, it is truly an anomaly how well Castellanos hits whenever there is big news that emerges. And his performance on Sunday only adds to the growing legend that he has become in the eyes of the majority of baseball fans.
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About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.