Most pitchers in baseball are little nuts, but Brian Wilson from the San Francisco Giants may be certifiable.
As a baseball fan, I’ve always loved hearing stories of pranks and jokesters in the clubhouse. Bert Blyleven, recently inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, was known for performing the “hot foot” prank, which involves crawling under the bench and surreptitiously setting a teammate’s shoe on fire. The current Weirdo Statesman in the MLB today is World Champion San Francisco Giants closer Brian Wilson, who has given interviews on Fox Sports with an S&M gimp which he calls “The Machine” walking through the frame. Yesterday, on Lopez Tonight, Brian Wilson appeared as a skipper boat captain, even going so far as to whiten up his huge black beard. The whole segment is about 7 minutes, but finally at the end of the crazy ride, we are introduced to the first of a series of shorts he made to promote the latest baseball game from 2K sports, MLB 2K11.
I’m not a huge fan, but I have to give kudos to Lopez for not laughing throughout the entire exchange. The conversation veers from Chuck Norris (“Chuck Norris has been known to throw 100 mph fastballs; I’ve been known to throw Chuck Norris 100 mph.”) to nautical adventures (“I wanted to closely relate to a seaman.”) to Asian massage parlors (“Not those kind of massages, they were strictly sexual.”)
I think Lopez said it best about halfway through the interview. “You’re a crazy motherfucker,” Lopez remarked with a small shake of his head. I’m inclined to agree.
Once Wilson got around to showing the video that he was ostensibly on the show to promote, it was a bit of a let down compared to the antics of the interview. Wilson, in his “normal” mohawk and beard, starts shit-talking with his videogame counterpart. “Oh, you think your beard is sweeter than mine? Not even the most perfect honey is sweeter than this beard.”
Wilson then makes sure to promote MLB 2K11‘s Perfect Game contest before Lopez calls him out on his Finding Nemo socks. Yeah, Wilson is definitely crazy, but if I had to pick someone to come in to oppose hitters in the last innings of a game, you want someone who’s a little unpredictable.
Update: 2K Sports has made Brian Wilson’s full promo short for MLB 2K11 available on the youtubes and it definitely makes more sense and is maybe even a little funnier then I first thought. Take a look.
