New York Mets third baseman Todd Frazier finally admitted to pulling a fast one on the umpire after what appeared to be an impressive diving catch in Monday night's 4-2 victory against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
After the tumble, Frazier showed the umpire the ball, got the out call and then quickly tossed the ball back into the stands. The ball he grabbed wasn't the foul ball off the bat of Alex Verdugo, it was a rubber baseball that had fallen onto the ground when Frazier dove into the stands.
Steve Gelbs of SportsNet New York was the first to report that Frazier faked the catch after further review of the tape.
.@SteveGelbs reveals the TRUTH behind the @FlavaFraz21 diving “catch” on Monday. Video don’t lie! pic.twitter.com/P4a1gBQIXe
— SportsNet New York (@SNYtv) September 5, 2018
The New Jersey native broke down his thought process during the play to reporters before Wednesday night's game.
"It is Hollywood, so sometimes you have to act out a little bit," said Frazier. "Basically I caught the ball going in the stands and as I came down the ball came out. After seeing the replay there was another ball there and the first ball I saw I picked up and raised my hand up and [Mark Wegner] called him out. It was just one of those things where I thought real quick, I had a split-second, and if there wasn't a ball there I didn't have a shot to get him out."
"It's Hollywood, sometimes you have to act out a little bit"@FlavaFraz21 breaks down how he tricked an umpire with a rubber ball, and how he thought about giving it to Jacob deGrom to pitch pic.twitter.com/CFokpzPZER
— SportsNet New York (@SNYtv) September 5, 2018
"It was one of those things where I think any third baseman or any player trying to win would do it," said Frazier.
