As Big League Stew pointed out, Justin Verlander is apparently one of those professionals.  Verlander gave a new meaning to the term “flamethrower” on Sunday with his dugout prank during a game against the Twins. Check out the video of Justin Verlander’s hot foot prank on Don Kelly, courtesy of MLB.com:

Personally, I think I’d rather have a pie in the face.

Weaver — or some other teammate if the pitcher is being falsely accused — arranged for Trout’s cell phone number to be plastered on the scoreboard at Temple Diablo Stadium at various points throughout the game. Lucky for the 19-year-old, there were only 2,822 people on hand to watch the spring training game between the Angels and A’s.  Still, teammate Joel Pineiro said his phone was “blowing up” in his locker during the game.

We’ve seen plenty of baseball pranks before, but this one seems like more of a nuisance than a practical joke.  Rather than thinking to himself, “haha you got me,” Trout has to be thinking, “great, now I have to get a new cell phone number and let everyone know about it.” That being said, I doubt he’ll ever speak out of turn again during one of his manager’s team building exercises.

Sources:
At-Bat Music Is Ripe For A Prank [Deadspin]
Diamondback Gets Duped [SI Hot Clicks]

Even though he’s having a down season, White Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham was worrying about his status. Beckham knew his name was involved in rumors and that GM Ken Williams is unafraid of making shocking deals. Apparently Williams was well aware of Beckham’s mentality and decided to take advantage of the situation. As this video recaps, Kenny called Beckham into manager Ozzie Guillen’s office 10 minutes prior to the trade deadline to screw with the kid’s head. You have to hear more about the pressure-packed situation in this video of Ken Williams pranking Gordon Beckham courtesy of Chicago Breaking Sports:

I don’t know if MLB Network had a camera crew filming the joke for an episode of The Show, but that sure was a made-for-TV moment. As far as baseball pranks go, that was pretty good. Although I do have to say that Adam Dunn’s prank of Jay Bruce is still my favorite.

Video Credit: Chicago Breaking Sports

When the game was over, Willie Stargell, the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer who was then a Braves coach, walked over to Glavine in the clubhouse and handed him the game ball, giving him a heartfelt handshake. “You should give this to your mom,” he said.

Glavine thought that was a cool idea until he looked at the inscription Stargell had written on the ball. “Hey, Mom,” it said. “This is the ball from my first fucking major league win.”

Glavine almost gagged. Stargell reached into his pocket and produced the actual game ball, a huge smile on his face.

That’s pretty classic. Imagine if Glavine hadn’t looked down and passed it on straight to his mother — that woulda made for a sweet reaction.

Pitcher Josh Fogg arrived at his locker Wednesday to find it stacked with 60 boxes of pennies, 2,500 pennies to a box. He immediately looked at Griffey and said, “That’s good, Griff, real funny. Kick me when I’m down.”

Griffey warned him but Fogg didn’t believe it when Griffey said he was going to pay off a $1,500 debt in pennies.

“I’m a man of my word,” said Griffey. “When you owe a man $1,500, you pay him. You can’t do a whole lot with pennies, can you? Just think, each box weighs 16 pounds so Fogg has 60 bowling balls in his locker.”

Gotta love Hal McCoy relaying the information that really matters. Like we care about Jeff Keppinger’s knee injury — this is the good stuff. Maybe it’s something about the Reds’ clubhouse. Remember Adam Dunn pranking Jay Bruce? That was pretty solid. I’m not sure which one’s better.

Dunn’s most elaborate prank happened Monday. Copies of the “Reds Report,” with Bruce on the cover, arrived in the clubhouse.

The headline next to Bruce’s photo was “The Next Big Thing.”

Dunn had Bruce sign copies for a number of people, including manager Dusty Baker.

Dunn then made Bruce deliver the copy to Baker and ask him if he knew Bruce was the next big thing.

“He came in here all shy,” Baker said. “ ‘It wasn’t my idea. It really wasn’t, Mr. Baker.’ I said, ‘Who’s idea was it?’

“ ‘Adam Dunn.’ ”

“Dunn came by later. I asked him whose idea it was.

“Jay’s all the way.’”

That’s a solid prank right there. Most players are uneasy seeing publications with their names and mugs on the cover. So to personalize one for your manager? That really has to stink. I feel bad for the kid. Thought not as bad as I felt for Kyle Kendrick. That could go down as possibly the greatest prank ever, probably because it was documented on video. If you still haven’t seen it, you must, just keep reading.

Doesn’t get any better than that.