In the annals of great sports pranks, this one doesn't quite measure up to the great Auburn-Georgia Tech greasy train tracks incident back in ol' 1896. But given all the drama between Bryce Harper and Ozzie Guillen over the weekend, this is pretty good.
From the Marlins website:
Adam LaRoche had Harper sign a bat for him. Harper didn't know the purpose, but it's common for players to get autographs from each other.
From there, LaRoche added next to the signature, "To my hero, Ozzie, love you."
The Nationals players had the bat smeared with pine tar and sent it to Guillen.
And how, you might ask, did ol' Ozzie take this? Let's head below the jump.
More from the Marlins website:
"It was funny," Guillen said. "I've got a few friends on their side. All those guys were making fun of me. I found out later they made the kid sign the bat. They put the rest. 'To my hero, Ozzie, love you.'"
[snip]
"To make this thing clear, I don't have anything against the kid," Guillen said. "I don't. Whatever happened, happened. Whatever I say, I say. Whatever my reaction was, it was. But I think this kid is going to be good for the game. No doubt. This kid is very good. We need players like that to come out and play the game right. That's good. I think what he did, maybe he did because he's a kid. I hope he learned from that.
"His manager said I was trying to intimidate him. I wasn't. That was the last thing on my mind. I hope he learned from that and moved on."
And hopefully, we can move on, too.