Dan Plesac has held a number of different titles throughout his baseball career.
All-star closer for the Milwaukee Brewers, shutdown lefty for the Toronto Blue Jays and MLB Network analyst. But could a late-career shift to clairvoyance be on the horizon?
If Plesac’s pre-game prediction on Friday was any indication, he could have a knack for seeing the future after the 18-year MLB veteran absolutely nailed his homer hunch on the MLB Network ahead of Game 1 of the World Series.
“Addison Barger. Not in the starting lineup, but he will come off the bench and be a left-hander off the bench. And I’m telling you what, he’s going to run into one, and the Rogers Centre is going to come unglued,” Plesac foretold.
“He is going to get a pinch-hit at-bat in the seventh, eighth or ninth inning, and he’s going to send this place into a frenzy.”
Pretty wild to pick a guy who wasn’t even in the starting nine.
Of course, Barger delivered on Plesac’s prediction — albeit off by an inning — as he grabbed his bat to pinch hit for Davis Schneider in the sixth and strode to the plate with the bases loaded against Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Anthony Banda.
Barger launched a 413-foot grand slam — the first pinch-hit bases-clearing homer in World Series history — vaulting the Blue Jays to a 9-2 lead.
“Thank you ‘Bam Bam’ … ‘Bad Intentions’ … made me look smart as my ‘Homer Hunch’ on the The National Pre Game Show on MLB Network. Addison Barger comes thru for me!” Plesac wrote on X after the fact.
Plesac pitched for the Blue Jays from 1997 to 1999 and 2001 to 2002, posting a 4.21 ERA across 262 career appearances, serving as an important left-handed relief option in Toronto.
While he undoubtedly strung together some impressive performances north of the border, he might have topped even his most efficient outings with Friday’s spot-on prediction.