In the top of the eighth inning of the Braves' beatdown of the Marlins, Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright decided to do what any good broadcaster would do and tried to fill dead air during a blowout. Wainwright, who has been in the booth for Fox Sports' coverage of the Atlanta-Miami NLDS series, told a story about this past season that involved his teammates' conspiratorial beliefs.
Most notably, the pitcher said on the broadcast that he had to "battle half of my team" over whether the Earth was flat -- he also threw in, almost as an aside, that there were also doubts about the moon landing.
#Cardinals Adam Wainwright just outed his teammates as being flat earth truthers!
— Steve Frederick (@_SteveFrederick) October 8, 2020
😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/r31SiiRy4A
"I had to battle half my team thinking the Earth is flat this year," he said. "And they think we've never been to the moon and all kinds of crazy stuff. I've got a bunch of Flat Earthers... Paul DeJong, smartest guy on the team, is a Flat Earther."
This is far from the first time that athletes have breached into believing the planet which we reside on is flat. Nets guard Kyrie Irving made headlines when he discussed the possibility of a flat earth, though he later clarified that he was a) joking and b) speaking on the broader topic of not taking information at face value and doing your own research -- he also apologized.
The good news, for those concerned about the intellectual wellbeing of the Cardinals as a team, is that Wainwright certainly does not buy into those beliefs. It was not made clear whether he was able to make headway on convincing his teammates that the Earth is not, in fact, a large disk with enormous ice walls surrounding the edges, though DeJong's agent did reportedly respond to the claim, calling it a 'joke.' It's also not clear whether the teammates also believe in the hidden messages you can find if you fold U.S. currency or how Black Mirror is like real life, if you really think about it hard.
