And There's A Drive To Deep Left
Nick Castellanos' grandfather, beer in hand, gets interviewed on local news, and there's a wild twist
The beauty of a great live, man-on-the-street interview on the local news is its unpredictability. The best ones have a number of twists and turns, often leaving you wondering if what you just witnessed was real. This man-on-the-street interview that took place on a local Philadelphia news channel Wednesday night checked every single one of those boxes.
Ahead of Game 2 of the NLDS between the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves, Chris O'Connell, a reporter for FOX29 Philadelphia, was standing outside Truist Park updating viewers on the weather situation in Atlanta. With raindrops still falling, O'Connell reported that the game was set to start at 7:30 p.m. ET instead of it's original 4:35 p.m. ET first-pitch time, and as he was doing this an older gentleman decked out in Philadelphia Phillies gear walked by. O'Connell stopped him and asked if he was from Philly, and the rest is history:
Man, there is so much to unpack here. Let's start with the hilarious matter-of-factness of Castellanos' grandfather, Leonard, who is just strolling around beer in hand like an absolute legend before he watches his grandson in the MLB Playoffs. "My grandson plays for the Philadelphia Phillies," he says like it's no big deal. Who is it, asks O'Connell. "Umm, Nick Castellanos." Again, no big deal.
It only gets better from there. "Wait, he's your nephew?" O'Connell asks merely seconds after Leonard said he was his "grandson." If you thought this was staged in any way, that moment is the confirmation that it is most certainly not. You can't script that type of spontaneous stupidity, no offense to O'Connell. We get it, man-on-the-street interviews happen fast, everything is moving a mile a minute, but that was still an all-time gaffe.
In the full interview, which can be viewed here, O'Connell recovers nicely, saying "he had a heckua game last night!" To which gramps replies, tongue-in-cheek "yeah, we're kinda proud of him a little bit." O'Connell then asks what it's been like to watch his grandson. "For the last 12-13 years, wonderful, wonderful," Leonard replies. Getting dusty in here.
Not to ruin the heartwarming stuff, but we'd be remiss not to point out the wild twist we referred to in the headline, though the Jomboy tweet sort of gave it away:
For those confused, every Nick Castellanos homer since the infamous Thom Brennaman "and there's a drive into deep left" on-air apology has seemingly occurred at the same time as someone's untimely death, to the point where it's become a running internet joke. This moment was not a Castellanos homer, but it's almost too fitting that that news update scrolled across the bottom of the screen while a reporter randomly ran into Castellanos' grandfather on the street. Call it a stretch if you want, but it's still downright eerie. Nothing more unpredictable than a good man-on-the-street interview, am I right? And there's a drive into deep left ....