Philadelphia Phillies star Nick Castellanos is responsible for one of the best-running memes in all of sports in recent years due to his propensity of hitting home runs following tragic moments around the world. But the meme, which has largely lived exclusively on social media, nearly reached a much wider, national audience.
The meme of course gained life during the on-air apology of former Cincinnati Reds broadcaster Thom Brennaman following a homophobic slur, an apology that was interrupted by “a drive into deep left field” from Castellanos that ended up living in infamy.
Since then, whether it be hitting a blast on the day Joe Biden’s reelection campaign came to an end or ruining a somber moment on Memorial Day, his uncanny ability to overshadow big news stories has been a consistent talking point in the MLB.
Castellanos hasn’t publically spoken about the meme all that much. But on Friday, he did just that in a conversation with Alex Tantum, the founder of the page “MLB Fits” on X. In the conversation, Castellanos revealed that he was actually approached by ESPN to potentially run an exclusive story about the meme, but turned it down because the network wouldn’t give him editorial rights on the story.
“Sometimes certain things are viewed as tragedy. Sometimes things are viewed as beautiful,” said Castellanos. “You know, whenever I hit a homer, it’s just how you look at it. It’s funny, ESPN actually approached me because they wanted to do an exclusive story on the man who hits home runs at all these inopportune times. But it didn’t work out because they wouldn’t give me editorial rights of the story to make sure that I liked it before it came out. They wouldn’t do that, so opportunity lost.”
It truly would have been fascinating to see what Castellanos would have said in an exclusive story of all the times he happened to hit a home run. Because the already extensive list continues to grow.
Who knows, maybe another network will potentially capitalize where ESPN failed and get the full story from Castellanos’ perspective. But for the time being, the meme will live on amongst MLB fans on social media.
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.