Todd Frazier admits fooling umpire on spectacular 'catch'
Turns out Todd Frazier is a pretty good actor.
The New York Mets third baseman finally admitted pulling a fast one on the umpire after what appeared to be a spectacular catch in Monday night's 4-1 victory against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
On the play, Frazier raced into foul territory and dove into the stands on a pop-up by Alex Verdugo. Frazier showed the ball to umpire Mark Wegner, who ruled Frazier had made the out.
However, it was a different ball than the one Verdugo hit.
“It is Hollywood, so sometimes you have to act out a little bit,” Frazier told reporters before Wednesday night's game. “Basically I caught the ball going in the stands and as I came down the ball came out. After seeing the replay there was another ball there and the first ball I saw I picked up and raised my hand up and [Wegner] called him out. It was just one of those things where I thought real quick, I had a split-second, and if there wasn’t a ball there I didn’t have a shot to get him out.”
SportsNet New York's Steve Gelbs had already outed Frazier's sleight of hand, reporting that Fraizer had tricked the umpire by grabbing a rubber ball from a nearby green bag.
Frazier appeared to confirm the deception by retweeting some tweets in response to a message that said "Yeah, he didn't make it."
Frazier officially came clean on Wednesday. He said he didn't know he had grabbed the wrong ball until he reached into his glove and realized it was rubber.
That was when he thew the ball into the stands after the batter was called out.
“I had another decision to make, whether to give Jacob [deGrom] the ball or throw it in the stands and that was the only thing I could think of,” Frazier said. ‘I was flabbergasted I got away with it.
“It was one of those things where I think any third baseman or any player trying to win would do it.”