ST. LOUIS — Who would blink first when the Dodgers and Cardinals reconvened at Busch Stadium on Friday night for Game 6 of the National League Championship Series?
Apparently not Scott Van Slyke or Joe Kelly.
The Dodgers reserve and Cardinals right-hander had their teammates giggling and Twitter in a state of LOL after engaging in a bizarre and lighthearted — we think — stunt before the game.
It began as business as usual. Players from both teams had lined up outside the dugouts for the national anthem, standing at attention, hats over hearts, then retreated after the final note.
All except Van Slyke and Kelly, who remained standing at attention, hats over hearts, for nearly 15 minutes, long enough for the grounds crew to finish its final preparations and for the Cardinals’ starters to take the field. They still stood there, Van Slyke a step off the dugout rail on the third-base side, and Kelly all the way out along the edge of the grass near the first-base line, when St. Louis pitcher Michael Wacha finished his mound warmup pitches. Perhaps fearing for Van Slyke’s safety, a well-meaning Dodgers teammate placed a helmet on the stoic outfielder’s head.
Kelly, meanwhile, was cracking up on the other side, making Van Slyke the clear winner of Major League Baseball’s first postseason staring contest.
Finally, home-plate umpire Greg Gibson had enough, and with a hint of a smile on his own face, he emphatically urged both to get the heck out of the way so the big game could begin.
The memorable stare down had the potential to be both players’ only appearance on Friday. Van Slyke was on the Dodgers’ bench (and has appeared just once in the series, as a defensive replacement in Game 1), while Kelly had just pitched Game 5 of the series in Los Angeles two days earlier.
Adam McCalvy is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Brew Beat, and follow him on Twitter at @AdamMcCalvy. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
