Prior to Wednesday night’s game against the division rival St. Louis Cardinals, the Brewers’ Casey McGehee had hit five home runs on the season. McGehee belted 23 home runs last season, so he obviously has more pop than he’s been showing. A season-long slump and having only one homer in the last 63 games prior to Wednesday had really hampered McGehee’s production.
Then a request came in. McGehee was chatting with a shy youngster named Clayton before the game and trying to get him to come out of his shell. While he could not get the boy to say anything, Casey’s father eventually proposed the idea that McGehee hit a homer for his son.
“I go, ‘Wait a second. I’ve got five on the year, Dude,” McGehee responded. “‘If it was that easy, I’d have had more by now. So how about let’s go for I don’t screw anything up today?’ That was good enough for him.”
As it turns out, McGehee would have looked a lot more badass had he accepted the challenge. He cracked three home runs to lead Milwaukee to a 10-5 win and extend its lead in the NL Central to 3.5 games. McGehee had no luck finding Clayton after the game to thank him, but he said he plans on tracking him down, giving him a home run ball, getting him his own locker, and bringing him to Houston for the team’s next series. Don’t laugh — baseball players really are that superstitious. Don’t believe us? Just read some of these stories.
