When Jeff Francoeur retires from baseball, he may yet become a nuclear physicist or rocket scientist. He may invent a spacecraft that can escape the outer reaches of the galaxy and send back vital information concerning the origins of the universe. Maybe he'll even set his sights on inventing a jetpack to finally shut up all the people who think they were promised jetpacks (like this band).
Francoeur can accomplish anything he sets his mind to -- but being savvy and aware of his surroundings must not be a prerequisite. This was made clear recently when Francoeur was convinced, relatively easily, by his Triple-A teammates that pitcher Jorge Reyes is deaf.
Reyes, as he explains in the accompanying video without the benefit of sign language, is not deaf. There were ample signs that Reyes wasn't deaf, but Francoeur ignored them because… well, because he's Jeff Francoeur and Jeff Francoeur ignores signs.
The end result was one of the best baseball pranks enacted in some time.
Pranks are a time-honored tradition in professional baseball, primarily because the game is played by men with the sense of humor of middle-schoolers, the free time of the retired, and the monetary funds of Scrooge McDuck. Who else has time to set fire to someone else's shoe while they're still wearing it? Or create a bucket full of pickle juice, milk, eggs, rotten fruit, anchovies, and old lunchmeat specifically for the purpose of dumping it on someone's head? Or put human poop in someone else's glove? Or… Stop! Go back! Poop in someone's glove? Yeah, it was… You know what? Forget I asked.
