Hypnotist spells comic relief in bonding session
After an odd morning left him sleepy, Justin Smoak doubled in his first at-bat Saturday.
DUNEDIN, FLA.— Justin Smoak looked stupefied. Even more than usual.
A bit dopey, having just been among the volunteers who’d entrusted their dignity to a “hypnotist comedian” at an early morning Blue Jays team bonding event.
It was Mark Shapiro’s idea. It was Ross Atkins’ idea. It was Charlie Montoyo’s idea. In other words, nobody actually taking absolute responsibility for the weirdo extracurricular.
“I was sleeping,” Smoak reported afterwards. As in, put to sleep. “Still feel sleepy, man.”
Not that — to his knowledge — this Mr. You Are Feeling Very Sleepy had coerced Smoak into doing really stupid stuff under the powers of hypnotic persuasion. Didn’t bark like a seal. Cluck like a chicken. Dance like a fly-girl.
“I rode a roller coaster, I know that.”
Teammates were howling in the aisles of the media lunchroom, Deep Cleats spills. Smoak, Danny Jansen and Tim Mayza among were among the guinea pigs.
The mesmerist also induced the players under his spell to believe they were on vacation in the Caribbean, on a bus with no air conditioning, their bums burning. At which point the patsies began hopping around and fanning their fannies, Deep Cleats says.
When the event was over, Montoyo arrived at his morning press scrum intoning: “I think I’m Casey Stengel.” All giggles. “I don’t know if I believed it or not, but it was funny … I’m glad we did it.”
Said Smoak, still trying to shake himself awake before taking BP: “It feels like I’ve been sleeping for a while.” Footnote: While Smoak doesn’t recall being snapped out of his trance, the big first baseman’s mind certainly appeared clear a few hours later, over at Spectrum Field in Clearwater. After rapping out a double against Philly starter Jake Arrieta, Smoak scored all the way from second without a ball put into play — wild pitch and an error. BIGGIO DODGES ONE: This past Wednesday, Cavan Biggio hit a home run, his first of the spring. A few hours later, he hit a wall. With his truck. Which was only revealed by the Jays on Saturday.
The kid is OK: checked out at the hospital, sore back and neck, placed on concussion protocol and cleared. He’s tentatively scheduled to play Sunday against the Twins, away. But sheesh, that was a close thing when he veered to avoid colliding with a woman who’d run a yield sign on Route 19, then halted.
“At the last second I saw her and swerved out of the way, and ran into a little brick wall.” A barrier on the side of the hightraffic highway. “My truck was totalled, but the airbags came up and I thank God I was pretty much untouched.”
Badly shaken, however. It was his first-ever car accident.
Biggio stumbled out of the vehicle and straight into the arms of Anthony Alford, who’d been driving close behind and didn’t even realize that his teammate was the victim.
“He was as shocked as I was,” Biggio told reporters. “He was like, ‘Biggio!’ And I was like, ‘Anthony, what’s up man. I gave him a big and hug and he said, ‘You’re all right, you’re all right.’ A truck can be replaced. It was really nice to see a familiar face like Anthony.”
Alford: “I was almost in the same wreck. He was in the right lane, probably two car lengths in front of me. I saw the lady stopped in the middle of the road so I just locked up my brakes and I almost hit her … I didn’t know it was Biggio. I couldn’t see who was driving because of the airbags and the smoke. It was just very chaotic. When we pulled the guy out of the truck and I realized it was Biggio, my heart just dropped.”
As of Saturday, no charges had been laid against the other driver. ALFORD HEATS UP: A much finer day at the park Saturday for Alford, fighting for an outfield job. He belted his fourth home run of the spring, scoring three runs, and stole his second base as the Jays edged the Phillies 8-7. Alford has six hits in his past 13 at-bats with seven RBIs … Starter Matt Shoemaker got a glare from Rhys Hopkins on an inside pitch that sent the first baseman diving into the dirt. That was on Hopkins’ second at-bat after taking Shoemaker out of the park in the first … Shoemaker struck out four, walked four and gave up two jacks over three innings … Toronto trailed for the first time in 51 innings.