Los Angeles Dodgers Hire a Magician to Teach Juan Uribe Hidden-Ball Trick

Abra cadabra and you’re out, Juan.

That was the way things went down during last Saturday’s game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays. 

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Dodgers infielder Juan Uribe took one small step off third base when an unexpected tag was applied from behind by Rays third baseman Evan Longoria.

That’s right—the old hidden-ball trick. 

GIF via MLB.com

It’s a ploy that killed in Little League but generally isn’t a high-percentage tactic in MLB—until this game. 

The Dodgers appeared to have learned their lesson from the mental error, but as a precautionary measure (and joke), the team hired the services of world champion magician Jason Latimer to help Uribe learn a few sleight of hand tricks of his own.

The organization filmed a video of the magical meeting, which was hosted and MC’d by the Dodgers’ own utility man Jerry Hairston Jr. The video was spotted by Nate Scott of For The Win and features just about all the goofy awkwardness of a magician surprising a major league baseball player.

You may remember Latimer from his appearances on BBC One’s The Magicians. He’s no rookie to magic, and the magician manages to teach Uribe the subtler points of pulling a “hidden” baseball out of his hat. 

Now that he’s learned to “fight fire with fire,” Uribe is all ready for another showdown with the Rays—which, as Hairston Jr. points out, would only occur in the World Series. It is unlikely that the teams meet in the Fall Classic, but the Dodgers (70-50) are on a heater, winning their last eight games.

They’ve got the magic already; what they need is better communication between third base coach Tim Wallach and his baserunners—or some WD-40 and a carjack to remove Wallach’s head from his posterior.

Join me on Twitter, where the magic never ends. Kind of. 

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