Put simply, things got weird during Monday night’s matchup between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers.
A man in tighty whities (who has since been outed as Florida native and YouTube [RossCreations] prankster Charles Ross) charged the field, attempted to steal second base and was tackled in a cloud of dirt—all while Dick Vitale watched in rapt attention, live-tweeting the action.
The field rusher was—wait a minute.
Let’s not gloss over that whole part where a legendary college basketball announcer provided the Internet with coverage of a half-naked man being mowed down by security at Tropicana Field.
Sitting in his usual seats by the third base dugout, the 74-year-old sportscaster looked on as a young man jumped down onto the field and attempted to pry out the second base pad.
Vitale‘s tweet about the occasion was spotted by RaysIndex.com—and yes, he reacted exactly how you’d imagine he would react.
Oh my God. You could spread that tweet on crackers. It’s awesome, baby.
Judging by the image in the tweet, Vitale grabbed one of the on-field photographers and demanded to see if he had any cool pictures of the field-rusher. It was a fine gesture, considering he likely knew broadcasters weren’t showing the streaker’s goodies to viewers at home (GIF courtesy of Rodger Sherman of SB Nation).
Luckily for us, images of the event have surfaced.
Here, the security guards appear to be forming some kind of tumbling stunt and/or human pyramid with Captain Tighty.
As you can see, the man was arrested and escorted from the field. Also, notice the near total coverage of the body in dirt. This man didn’t skimp on the dry-rub with these chicken thighs.
A consummate newscaster, Vitale signed off from the strange night with a rundown of the box score.
The Rays might have won the game, but it feels like Dickie V and the Internet pulled out the “W” Monday night.
Join me on Twitter because it’s awesome, baby.
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