We already knew New York Mets pitcher Max Scherzer was the best kind of maniac on the mound. Now The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd and Jayson Jenks revealed just how much fun he has off it in an incredible piece on Scherzer.
The article mostly gave a behind-the-scenes look, via Scherzer’s former catchers, at the legend of Scherzer and provided a few glimpses of his personality.
The interesting tidbits that arose were the stories told about Scherzer’s competitive spirit towards betting and fantasy sports — things that we can all relate to.
Gerald Laird described Scherzer as “a finagler” before Rick Porcello, Alex Avila and Bryan Holaday went on to reminisce about the time Scherzer took a fantasy football draft pick away from a league member in a complete and unnecessary flex of power as the league commissioner.
But it was Shawn Kelley explaining how he paid off some gambling debt to Scherzer in the midst of a regular-season game that really goes to show how much the pitcher likes to mess around during his off days.
“So I was down some debt to Max over some bad bets that I made on some NBA playoff basketball and hockey playoffs. He was feeling bad for my poor little reliever self with his big Cy Young money, so he said: “I’ll tell you what, I’ll erase a $1,000 of your debt if you go out there and you just throw one warmup pitch and just say, ‘[Expletive] it, I’m ready to go.’” I took a bunch of extra warmup pitches in the bullpen and I went out there and threw one warmup pitch and said, “Hey, I’m ready.” The ump was like, “What?” And I’m like, “No, I’m ready, let’s go.” It didn’t go real well, but I did get some of my money back. Of course, I look in the dugout and Max is just grinning ear to ear.”
Props to Kelley for going through with this and even more kudos to Scherzer for putting entertainment over profits.
The big takeaway here is that Max Scherzer is a national treasure — one whose affection for fantasy sports and betting isn’t all that different from mine and yours.
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