MLB

Today In “Baseball Is A Slow Game”: Indians Relievers Unsuccessfully Chase A Squirrel

Welcome to the latest edition of SportsGrid’s sporadic series, “Baseball is a slow game.” It’s no secret that the pace of your standard baseball game can make the proceedings, well, boring. And we’re not just talking for spectators. Not infrequently, TV cameras will catch idle players desperately trying to amuse themselves, proving that sometimes the magic of the game is trumped by monotony. For today’s edition, we return to perhaps the dullest place for a player to sit during a game – the bullpen.

Think there’s not much to do when you’re sitting and watching a baseball game in the dugout? Well, imagine the bullpen. At least a bunch of the guys in the dugout are playing in the game and therefore don’t have to sit there for the entire three-or-so hours. Plus, the dugout has a bunch of people in it. If you’re in the bullpen, not only is it just you and your relatively small, specialized group, but there’s a decent chance you’ll never even do so much as warm up…and if you do that, it probably won’t be until well into the game. What happens in the meantime? Well, for one thing, rodents get a lot more interesting.

Yesterday, it seems, a squirrel made its way into the Cleveland Indians’ bullpen during the team’s 8-6 loss to the Detroit Tigers. It quickly became Public Enemy #1 in there, because what else were those guys going to do? Closer Chris Perez took particular interest in catching the pest – though, thanks to some impressive escapability on the squirrel’s part, without success. Announcers sarcastically observed that Indians manager Manny Acta would be thrilled to learn how his closer was spending his time. But again – it’s the bullpen. Can you blame him? Video of the squirrel chase below, via Guyism by way of Busted Coverage.