Additional stipulations for winning or losing your fantasy league can raise the stakes for everybody involved, but the Baltimore Orioles really took things to another level. Because of their poor performance in a team fantasy league, Orioles pitchers Kevin Gausman and Chris Tillman were forced to serve as bat boys in Saturday’s spring training game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Quick, deep humiliation followed. According to Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun, Gausman and Tillman really had to do the dirty work, even providing the umpire at home plate with baseballs:
Looks like being on a MLB roster does come with its downsides, after all. Professional baseball is a platform that only very few can be embarrassed on. More fantasy leagues should follow in suit, but only so many of them can. The idea of, say, Josh Donaldson forced to shine cleats and hang up jock straps for a day is an outstanding one.
May we all aspire to embarrass our friends on the most public stage available to us, if they have the misfortune to draft David Johnson or Mike Evans in the first round.