Players, coaches enjoy solar eclipse excitement prior to Monday’s game
While the bulk of their attention was on the Detroit Tigers, the club that occupies the next two games on the schedule, the Pirates had a brief distraction prior to first pitch Monday evening. Similar to the majority of workplaces throughout the country, the discussion throughout the Pirates clubhouse in the late afternoon revolved around the solar eclipse.
“This is a pretty rare eclipse from what I’m hearing,” infielder Alika Williams said with a sarcastic smile. “I think a few guys are excited to see it — obviously with the right eyewear. I think we’ll be out there for batting practice when it happens, so it will be cool to experience it together.”
Leading up to the big event, the Post- Gazette bounced around the clubhouse to gauge which players were most excited about the eclipse. As the brief conversations took place, it became clear who had been most looking forward to the day.
“Mitch Keller has gone on record saying he owns a telescope,” Marco Gonzales said. “We’re talking about a space guy. He’s probably the guy. He bought his own glasses for this. We knew the team would provide us with some, but he got them anyway.”
Numerous other teammates agreed that Keller, Monday’s starting pitcher, was the most interested. Answers differed, however, when it came to who would take the eclipse the least seriously.
The Post-Gazette asked numerous Pirates who, if any, would be the player on the team to look toward the sky without eye protection. Bryan Reynolds and Jared Triolo were popular responses, but the favorite was Henry Davis.
“He’s a tough catcher,” Gonzales said. “Maybe he’d think he could just battle through it.”
“That’s the perfect pick,” Josh Fleming echoed. “Just know it’s Henry Davis.”
Thankfully, all Pirates players and coaches were provided the proper glasses to view the eclipse throughout its peak. First on the field was, of course, Keller, donning his special red, white and blue glasses.
“That was awesome,” the Pirates’ All-Star righty said as the sun reappeared.
But while Keller was impressed, others were left underwhelmed. Rookie righthander Jared Jones took time to give his rating — a thumbs down — before heading back into the clubhouse.
Perhaps focused on bigger, more important tasks for his job as the club’s manager, Derek Shelton had little to say about the eclipse over the weekend. But his mind seemingly changed after seeing it unfold with his players.
“I feel like Bill Nye the Science Guy now,” Shelton said during his pregame press conference. “I went into it not thinking much about it, but it was pretty cool once I put the glasses on. It was pretty neat to see, and I know it happens only once over 25 years or whatever. My oldest went to Texas with some people and watched it. And he sent me a video of the full eclipse, which was pretty weird to see because the whole screen went black. So it was cool.”