Max Scherzer Turned the Blue Jays’ Fantasy Football Draft Into a Radar Gun Competition, and It Is Perfect
Max Scherzer is the kind of competitor who cannot even organize a fantasy football league without turning it into a full-blown athletic event. And thank god for that.
Scherzer, the Blue Jays’ pitcher and unofficial fantasy football commissioner, decided the team’s 12 fantasy football participants needed a more entertaining way to figure out draft order. So he paired each player with an off-field staff member and made those staffers throw baseballs into a radar gun.
The hardest throw got the first pick. Manager John Schneider held the radar gun himself, because obviously he did.
Only Scherzer Could Pull This Off
Think about the layers here. Twelve Blue Jays players. Twelve off-field staff members recruited into a physical competition on their behalf. A future Hall of Fame pitcher officiating. A big-league manager working the radar gun. This is the kind of setup a normal fantasy commissioner would spend three group texts trying to plan.
Scherzer just did it.
The video that leaked out shows exactly what you would expect. Staff members giving it everything they have to earn their assigned player the top pick. Players losing their minds on the sideline as their guy either delivers or completely embarrasses himself. Schneider standing there like a coach at a scouting combine.
Hazel Mae of Sportsnet posted the video, and the internet did the rest.
The Blue Jays and Fantasy Football Culture
This is not new for the Blue Jays. This is a franchise that takes its fantasy football league seriously. Really seriously. A few years back, Tim Mayza was famously punished for finishing last in the league, and the punishments have only escalated over time. The culture around the league sounds more competitive than some of the actual games the team plays in September.
Scherzer inherited that culture when he arrived in Toronto and immediately made it his own. This is a guy who once famously had a physical altercation with a manager who tried to take him out of a game. He does not know how to compete quietly. Even in a fantasy football setting where the pressure could not be lower, he is engineering high-drama competitions.
The Content Value Alone
Every team should be doing stuff like this. Every team.
Fans love this content because it makes players look human. It makes clubhouses look fun. It gives casual fans a reason to care about players they only vaguely follow. And it costs the team nothing. The only investment is a radar gun and a willing group of off-field staffers.
The Blue Jays are in the middle of a playoff push. Skubal is now with the Dodgers. Vlad Jr. is still doing Vlad Jr. things. The pressure is real. Moments like this fantasy draft help teams stay loose, and the outside world falls in love with them all over again.
Nobody won any actual baseball games with a radar gun stunt. Nobody had to. This was Scherzer being Scherzer, and it was one of the best clubhouse videos of the summer.
The Blue Jays’ fantasy football season should be worth every minute of coverage it gets.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
