Earlier this week, a rumor surfaced that Washington Nationals pitching coach Steve McCatty posed for Playgirl magazine in 1984. The folks at Baseball Prospectus later confirmed the speculation by digging up this photo and introducing it to the internet. As you might expect, it has been open season on McCatty in the Nationals’ clubhouse ever since.
On Wednesday, Twitter user @JackoBeam shared a photo (via Sarah Kogod of DC Sports Bog) of Washington starter Gio Gonzalez rocking a T-shirt with McCatty’s now infamous picture on it. The Nats players had the T-shirts made in order to heckle their coach, and the team has been having a blast with it.
“It’s pretty incredible,” Ryan Zimmerman told 106.7 The Fan earlier this week, via DC Sports Bog. “It’s a perfect T-shirt, and what a picture. It’s one of the better T-shirts I’ve seen in the eight years I’ve seen them made.”
“Utter joy,” Washington reliever Tyler Cippard added. “This is the best day of my life.”
Manager Davey Johnson said he wishes he hadn’t seen the photo.
“I could have done without that revelation,” Johnson joked. “If you had asked me who that was, I could not have figured it out. If I had 100 years, I couldn’t figure out who that was. There’s been a big change in the last 30 years. I didn’t know he had that good a body, and I didn’t know he had that much hair.”
Does it get any better than this? McCatty had to have known this would come back to haunt him someday. He was probably just hoping that day would come after he retired.
“I took the picture,” McCatty said, admitting that it was his choice and he now has to deal with the consequences.
Look on the bright side, Steve — the most embarrassing portion of your life will be over soon enough.
