Nick Castellanos Home Runs During Major Historical Events Theory

About

Nick Castellanos Home Runs During Major Historical Events Theory refers to the discourse surrounding a remarkable series of coincidences centered on Major League Baseball player Nick Castellanos, who several times has hit a home run on the same day a major news event occurs. He has also interrupted multiple serious broadcast announcements with home runs. The coincidence first sparked discussions in 2020 as he homered during announcer Thom Brenneman's on-air apology (leading to the A Deep Drive Into Left Field by Castellanos meme) and drew widespread interest in July 2024 as Castellanos homered on both the day of the shooting at Donald Trump's rally and then the day Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 Presidential election.

Origin

On August 19th, 2020, Nick Castellanos hit a home run during Cincinnati Reds announcer Thom Brennaman's apology for using a homophobic slur on the air. This led Brennaman's apology to read:

If I have hurt anyone out there, I can't tell you how much I say from the bottom of my heart I'm so very, very sorry. I pride myself and think of myself as a man of faith, as there's a drive into deep left field by Castellanos and that'll be a home run. And so that'll make it a 4-0 ballgame. I don't know if I'm going to be putting on this headset again.

This led to Brennaman's apology becoming a widespread bait-and-switch meme, though it was not the first time a Castellanos home run coincided with a serious situation. It was later noted by media outlets^[1] that Castellanos, while in the minor leagues, hit a home run on May 1st, 2011, the same day the U.S. military killed Osama Bin Laden.

Spread

Over the following years, Nick Castellanos continued to coincidentally get big hits, usually home runs, on the same day as a major historical event. He also interrupted serious broadcaster messages with big hits multiple times. These include:

- Interrupting an on-air eulogy with a home run on July 5th, 2021.
- Interrupting an on-air homage to fallen military members with a home run on Memorial Day in 2022.
- Interrupting the Phillies' on-air update on former Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, who had suffered a stroke, with a home run on October 11th, 2023.
- Hitting a walk-off double shortly after news broke of the death of baseball legend Willie Mays on June 18th, 2024.
- Hitting a home run on June 13th, 2024, the day there was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump's life.
- Hitting a home run after Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection on July 21st, 2024.

Jokes about Castellanos' uncanny ability to hit home runs at awkward times began following his home run during the July 5th, 2021, on-air eulogy (shown below).

Over the following years, each new addition to Castellanos' catalog of oddly timed home runs inspired a new round of jokes about the bizarre phenomenon. On July 5th, 2021, Twitter user @bfermenting^[2] joked that if Castellanos was playing on 9/11, he would be all-time home run leader Barry Bonds, gaining over 1,200 retweets and 14,000 likes in three years (shown below, left).

Following his Memorial Day home run in 2022, Twitter user @DeferredWalkOn^[3] joked that "bad timing Nick Castellanos" was the best baseball player of all time, gaining over 70 likes in two years (shown below, right).

The jokes began to ramp up in July 2024 after Castellanos homered the day of Trump's assassination attempt, as people began to key in on the strange coincidence. For example on July 13th, Twitter user @JBigsDFS^[4] connected the two in a joke that gained over 140 retweets and 1,300 likes in nine days (shown below).

After Biden announced he would not seek reelection on July 21st, 2024, many online joked that it was a safe bet Castellanos would homer later that day. For example, shortly after Biden made the announcement on Twitter, user @Toogooden17^[5] joked that people should "pay attention" to Castellanos' next at-bat. Castellanos hit a home run later that day, leading user @MySportsUpdate^[6] to write "Nick Castellanos just hit a home run. I'm not kidding," gaining over 39,000 likes in one day (both tweets shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References