Kyle Kendrick of the Philadelphia Phillies was summoned into manager Charlie Manuel's office and told he'd been traded to the Yomiuri Giants of the Japanese Central League Saturday after workouts.
Kendrick was reportedly to receive one and a half million dollars in the deal that brought Kobayashi Iwamura here to America.
Releasing trade details to the media, Ruben Amaro, Jr. told reporters that although Kendrick had had a good season, he felt that Iwamura would take the team in the right direction. Kendrick was understandably stunned. After the press release, Kendrick asked the media if there was good food in Japan. Speaking of food...
Teammate Brett Meyers took that opportunity to reveal to Kendrick that he'd been "PUNKED." Apparently, the Phillies were not looking to replace Kendrick with a Japanese hot dog eating champion.
The team, management, and media were all in on the scam led by Brett Meyers. Kendrick was visibly relieved after learning of the dupe, but he'll probably avoid hot dogs and Japanese steak houses for some time to come. Video of the "trade" can be viewed on Youtube.
Kudos to Brett Meyers and The Philadelphia Phillies on an awesome prank. With Congressional hearings tarnishing the sport of baseball, it's great to see an entire team come together for a laugh—we all needed that.
2 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Dan Siegel about 1 year ago
Glad to see this Phillies are so focused this spring. Just ship that NL East title back up the turnpike and into Queens for 2008!
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Joe Willett about 1 year ago
the exact words of Amaro were "take the team to the next level" but ur paraphrase was good too
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