Whenever tragedy hits, so does Nick Castellanos. It’s become baseball’s biggest meme, and on Monday after the death of Pope Francis was announced by the Vatican naturally bettors saw the opportunity to cash in.
MLB home run odds are open once more at FanDuel, but when this was originally posted the odds were +630 for Castellanos to hit a homer on Monday — now they’re at +560, and still getting narrower. So, why is it that Castellanos is such a hot bet after the death of a pope? Welcome to the meme, it’s okay if you missed it.
The entire love affair with Castellano homering began when he homered during Thom Brennaman’s infamous apology for saying a homophobic slur on-air in 2020 — which caused him to ultimately lose his job. Brennaman paused mid-apology to announce the homer, and the meme was born.
We didn’t even need to wait a year for Castellanos to strike again. This time it was to interrupt the eulogy of a war veteran, who was the father of a long-time member of the Royals broadcast team.
Here is the Royals broadcast of the Nick Castellanos home run.
They were eulogizing someone live on the air when it Nick went deep to left-center field.
You can not make this stuff up.
Credit to @hjodoyle for the tip. pic.twitter.com/iA2grIKY61
— Nick Kirby (@Nicholaspkirby) July 6, 2021
Another year, another Castellanos. It came in Spring training, while the broadcast team were talking about Jays’ pitching coach Pete Walker getting a DUI.
Nick Castellanos earned his first hit in a Phillies uniform while the Blue Jays’ broadcast was discussing pitching coach Pete Walker’s DUI. You can’t make this stuff up. pic.twitter.com/RsKV2cyz8T
— Ben Brown (@BenBrownPL) March 27, 2022
We now had a pattern, and it just wouldn’t stop. Two months later he interrupted a message to servicemen and women on Memorial Day.
Charlie Manuel has a stroke. Castellanos was there.
From here he was relatively quiet during on-air announcements, but still his streak of big hits during world events was absolutely legendary.
- June 18, 2024: Willie Mays passes away. 30 minutes later Castellanos hits a walk-off homer
- July 13, 2024: President Trump is shot. Castellanos homers.
- July 21, 2024: President Biden announces he won’t seek reelection. Castellanos homers
Castellanos also homered on big sporting days. He went yard on the say day Brandon Graham announced he was retiring from the Eagles after 15 years, and again on the night Alex Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky’s goal record.
So, you can’t really blame anyone for putting some money down on Castellanos tonight. The odds are that he’s going to go big, because this man always seems to shine when tragedy strikes.
