It got weird, didn’t it?
video via MLIVE’s James Schmehl
The Tigers can clinch the AL Central title for a fourth straight season on Friday night with a little help from their Windy City friends, which would result in the Tigers players celebrating and spilling champagne all over each other. Torii Hunter clearly cannot wait for this to happen. And if the White Sox do help the Tigers this weekend, Hunter should just keep all the champagne for himself.
Remember this from 2007?
Torii Hunter’s gift of expensive champagne to the Kansas City Royals has the Minnesota Twins outfielder in some bubble trouble.
Hunter’s gift of four bottles of Dom Perignon, which he had delivered to the Royals clubhouse this past weekend, was meant as a reward for the Royals sweeping the Detroit Tigers last September, allowing the Twins to come from behind to win the American League Central. The gift fulfilled a promise Hunter made last fall.
But baseball has rules about this sort of thing.
Namely, rule 21-b, which proclaims “Any player or person connected with a Club who shall offer or give any gift or reward to a player or person connected with another Club for services rendered … in defeating or attempting to defeat a competing Club … shall be declared ineligible for not less than three years.”
And after “The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball Blog” reported the violation, the Twins got a phone call from the commissioner’s office about the proffered bubbly. And the Twins found themselves in an awkward position — having to call the Royals to ask that the champagne be returned.
Luckily, the Royals hadn’t popped the corks yet.
