DETROIT – A squirrel infiltrated Comerica Park during the Detroit Tigers game on Tuesday, puzzling Riley Greene and terrorizing the bullpen pitchers while the announcers narrated every glorious moment.
It happened during the very first at-bat of the game, and the video has since gone viral. If you were watching on FanDuel Sports Network, you got to enjoy commentary of the squirrel’s journey from Jason Benetti and Andy Dirks.
“You know, we like to stay on topic here, but -- Squirrel! SQUIRREL!” Benetti said.
“What? Where? Where? I don’t see it,” Dirks said.
The squirrel was bounding around the outfield, at one point leaving Greene completely perplexed in left. It eventually made its way to the outfield fence, and ran along the warning track to the bullpen, which has a fence through which the relievers watch the game.
Tyler Holton was sitting on the end when the squirrel hopped up and eventually wriggled through the fence.
“Oh boy, the bullpen’s on it,” Benetti said.
“Holton just got scared!” Dirks said.
“Oh, Tyler!” Benetti said.
The squirrel ultimately disappeared from view into the bullpen.
“He’s in the bullpen with the guys down there,” Dirks said. “Holton about came unglued.”
“Tyler gets lefties and righties out, but not squirrels,” Benetti said.
The broadcast also showed Will Vest looking over and trying to find the squirrel.
“It’s amazing,” Benetti said. “People think sometimes we don’t stay on subject, but literally, first pitch, there’s a squirrel.”
It’s true, some people do complain that the Tigers broadcast doesn’t stay on the topic of the game enough. But baseball season is long, and it’s nice to have a team of play-by-play guys and analysts who can be more entertaining than just, “foul, strike, fly ball to left field.”
Never change, fellas.
If you want to re-live the FanDuel Sports Network call, you can watch the video above.
On a related note, if you’ve never read about the time a squirrel got into my house (twice), here are those beautiful memories: