Fans know that Philadelphia Phillies’ Nick Castellanos seems to hit a home run whenever a major news story breaks.
But this meme could use a break.
Remember: Castellanos originally caught attention for hitting a home run during an apology from former Reds broadcaster Thom Brennaman in 2020. As memes tend to do, though, this trend has evolved over the years as Castellanos has only continued to hit it out of the park during serious moments.
This meme had yet another absurd moment in the sun this weekend.
Not long after President Joe Biden announced he would withdraw from the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Sunday afternoon, Castellanos managed to predictably hit a home run. It was silly and a lot of bettors made some money on the coincidental dinger:
Nick Castellanos puts an exclamation point on the @Phillies Sunday. pic.twitter.com/bd6edUrcsl
— MLB (@MLB) July 21, 2024
Fans love this absurdity but there is one major problem that they seem to forget.
This meme started because Castellanos interrupted a serious moment on TV after Brennaman apologized for making offensive and homophobic remarks. That isn’t historic. It’s just a very hateful use of an awful slur and the reason that the announcer was out of a job for several years.
Now, this meme has become something completely different and, consequently, far less funny. In Castellanos’ own words, as he told Pitcher List: “It’s like, terrible moments.”
Fine, I’ll say it. We lost the plot on the Castellanos thing. The thing is homering to interrupt very serious-toned monologues by broadcasters, not homering on the same day as world events.
— Zachary Levine (@zacharylevine) July 21, 2024
It is hardly connected to the original incident of when Castellanos hit a home run while something significant happened during the broadcast.
To his credit: Castellanos has also hit home runs during an homage to fallen veterans and while the broadcasting booth mentioned that former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel suffered a stroke. Those were wild and extremely unlikely examples of the meme coming to life.
A home run on the same day that Biden announced that he won’t seek re-election, however, is hardly the same thing.
Sure, it is eerie how often Castellanos seems to go yard on the same day as a historic event. But if you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it endlessly: We live in strange and uncertain times. As his wife tweeted in 2021:
“PSA to all Nick Castellanos joke tweets: something [expletive] happens everyday in the world find a new joke”
Major news is literally happening around us all the time. Perhaps it isn’t the hardest challenge to find a pro athlete able to accomplish something on their field of play on the same day that something else significant happens. We are trying to fit a round peg into a round hole and then act surprised when it fits.
If the broadcasters on the call were talking about Biden’s decision exactly before Castellanos hit a home run, then we would have a more interesting story.
Otherwise, this is just confirmation bias of something that has just become a bit of gibberish copypasta.
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