Those Wacky Marlins

The Marlins turned into quite the merry band of pranksters over the weekend. The gang isn't exactly Allen Funt, or some more current reference, but it's still cool to see baseball players having a little fun. It's important to keep a sense of humor during a disappointing season that finds the Fish 15.5 games out of the NL East. You know, in case those fat pay checks don't make them feel better.

Emilio Bonifacio is having a breakout season hitting .298/.372/.390 with 24 stolen bases but the kid doesn't have much pop. So when he hit his second career out-of-the-park home run, he was probably expecting to be greeted by some high-fiving teammates. But when he got there, high five ready to go, they were sitting there uninterested imitating the dozen of fans of their home crowd. It didn't last long though as they eventually got up to celebrate with the power challenged Bonifacio.

The second prank of the day was dealt out by 80-year-old manager Jack McKeon who must have been feeling pretty spry after pounding an Ensure. The skipper had a little fun with closer Leo Nunez and the trade deadline...

“Good luck,” McKeon told him. “You’re going to Chicago.”

“The Cubs?” Nunez asked, his face turning pale.

At that point, McKeon and Nunez’s teammates could hide the joke no longer and broke out in laughter.

Oh that Trader Jack is incorrigible. And incontinent. Zing. *dances off stage wearing adult diaper*

Mike Trout Is Changing His Phone Number

Future Hall of Famer and current Angels prospect Mike Trout caught his first dose of pranking on Monday. While some of the details are being kept under wraps, it appears that Trout broke an unwritten rule during the morning meetings and was punished accordingly.

After the top of the first inning of Monday’s game between the Angels and A’s, Trout’s phone number was splashed all over the scoreboard at Tempe Diablo Stadium with an invitation.

“Fans call Angels’ Mike Trout directly with your baseball questions,” said the message which was repeated several times throughout the game.

Unfortunately, I don't know any of the 2,822 attendees so I wasn't privy to Trout's digits. And I had some hard hitting questions for him like "Why are you so awesome?" and "Do they still make panzarottis in New Jersey?"

Trout apparently crossed a "no speaking unless spoken to" rule during a bout of Mike Scioscia team building exercises. It seems the offended party was staff ace Jered Weaver...

“Weave got him good,” Angels outfielder Peter Bourjos said, Trout admonishing from across the room not to give away too much — “Outfielders stick together,” Trout pleaded.

The 19-year-old Trout probably won't crack the big league roster unless he gets a cup of coffee in September. So the real rookie hazing won't get super ridiculous until next March.

Side note: Baseball Prospectus 2011 Almanac has Mickey Mantle listed as one of Trout's comparables. So, he's got that going for him.