Nick Castellanos just can’t seem to stop hitting home runs at the worst possible time.
The Reds slugger somehow found himself inserted into another amazing broadcasting moment on Monday night during the team’s game against the Royals. The Kansas City announcers opened the top of the seventh inning by giving a eulogy for George Gorman, father of longtime Royals clubhouse employee Pat Gorman, who died at 96 years old over the weekend.
But on the very first pitch of the inning, Castellanos launched a pitch into the left-center field bleachers of Kaufman Stadium – almost the exact same spot of the same park where he hit a home run during Thom Brennaman’s apology for using a homophobic slur last season.
“That’s a great life. 96 years. And Pat, just like his dad, went to KU, and also went to Bishop Ward high school … there’s a drive into deep left-center field, and there’s never a great time to eulogize someone during the broadcast, so we apologize for the timing, but our hearts go out to Pat, who has just been a tremendous, loyal employee to the Royals for 26 years,” announcer Steve Physioc said in the awkward moment.
After finishing up the eulogy, the broadcast got right back into the analysis: “Well, Nicholas Castellanos was 0-for-2 with two strikeouts against Mike Minor curveballs his first time up, and that slider didn’t quite slide enough.”
In 2020, Castellanos became a part of one of the most infamous moments in broadcasting history. Former Reds announcer Thom Brennaman was caught on a hot mic using a homophobic slur, and as he was giving his apology live on air, Castellanos hit a dinger against the Royals.
“I think of myself as a man of faith. There’s a drive into deep left field by Castellanos, it will be a home run. That will make it a 4-0 ballgame,” Brennaman said during the cringeworthy moment, before going on with his apology.
“I don’t know if I’ll be putting on this headset again, I don’t know if it’s gonna be for the Reds, I don’t know if it’s gonna be for my bosses at Fox. I apologize to the people who sign my paycheck, to the Reds, Fox Sports Ohio, the people I work with, anybody that I’ve offended here tonight — I can’t begin to tell you how deeply sorry I am. That is not who I am, and it never has been.”
It’s made even more amazing by the fact that Cincinnati and Kansas City are not in the same division, let alone the same league. The fact that the AL Royals played the NL Reds in back-to-back years is unlikely in itself: the 2020 pandemic season saw teams only playing those in close geographical proximity to one another, otherwise they likely wouldn’t have played the same interleague games in 2021.
Then, the fact that it was the same player, in the exact same part of the stadium … it’s absolutely mind-boggling.