A batboy in baseball is very familiar when it comes to baseball bats. A large part of his job consists of picking up baseball bats, hence the name batboy. On Wednesday night in Atlanta, though, the Braves’ batboy was introduced to a new kind of bat.
A flying bat — like the actual real-life animal — landed on the infield during the second inning of Atlanta’s game with the Philadelphia Phillies. Home plate umpire Gary Darling and Braves starting pitcher Brandon Beachy started to investigate things. It became clear pretty quickly that it was indeed a bat. From there, third baseman Paul Janish came on over to check it out for himself.
Janish, a Texas native who’s probably pretty familiar with all kinds of weird animals, bravely scooped the bat up with a glove. He then handed it to the batboy, who had arrived on the scene with a towel in his hands. After dropping the little guy briefly, the batboy successfully carried the bat back to the Atlanta dugout. That’s when the question of “Now what?” came into play.
See the batty scene unfold below.
