THE JEEP

Author

Matthew Garringer
March 14, 2024

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. Your personal baseball Time Machine.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a classic prank that happened in the early 90’s.

It’s tough being a rookie in the MLB - you get hazed a lot.

Sometimes the vets make you carry their bags around, or flip the bill for dinner.

Other times, they make you dress up like a cheerleader and it saves you from a bullet.

But rarely does a prank THIS EPIC go down in front of a stadium full of fans.

It was 1992, and the Blue Jays were playing their last game of the season.

The rookie, Derek Bell, was getting the start that day because Jays had already clinched a post-season spot.

Naturally, Joe Carter and Dave Winfield decided to play a prank on him.

Carter went on MLB Network a few years ago to tell the story:

“In Toronto, they gave us cars.

Honda was a sponsor, so everyone had the same car. But Derek decided to drive his car.

And he loved his Jeep. And he talked about his sound system — the sound system cost more than the car itself!”

“We knew that he was going to play. I’m sitting in the clubhouse the day before, I said ‘Derek’s playing tomorrow because we’ve already clinched.

It’s fan appreciation day, we’re going to get his Jeep.”

- Joe Carter

He teamed up with the clubhouse guy, who got the car all clean - then they moved the Jeep to the tunnel.

Carter went over in the 7th inning, and jumped into the driver’s seat.

Only issue was, Bell had a special ignition system, so you had to turn it a certain way.

Joe was having trouble getting it started, and time was running out, so he smacked the steering wheel and it started.

Carter drove onto the field bumping a Toronto Blue Jays rap song, and the PA guy started announcing the raffle winner for the car. 

The cameras panned over to Derek Bell, and his reaction was pure gold.

Luckily for Bell, his car, and his sound system weren’t actually given away to a fan, but the Jays ended up giving their fans the ultimate gift that year.

A World Series Title.

RIDICULOUS STATS

BASEBALL TRIVIA

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Shooty played 54 games for the Oakland A’s during his one-and-only season in the big leagues.

Billy Martin was his manager back in those days and had this to say about him:

"If you ever see Shooty Babitt play second base for me again, I want you to Shooty me."

I think that pretty much sums it up.

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