PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As the Sixers were stealing sports headlines over the weekend, the Phillies won consecutive games for the first time in over three weeks. And in their 12-6 victory over the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park, they unveiled what appears to be a new prop in moments of success: a home run hat.
Brad Miller and J.T. Realmuto wore the Phillies-branded straw hat after hitting one out — Realmuto's 100th career home run, to be more specific, which came with a curtain call during which he waved the hat.
"Everybody's got to have something in the league. We were a bunch of old boring guys in here," Realmuto told the Phillies NBC Sports Philadelphia telecast crew Sunday. He said they finally got something to celebrate home runs.
"I think [reliever] Archie [Bradley] is the one who originated it," Realmuto told reporters a short time later. "He bought one, wore it in the clubhouse. We all loved it, thought it was funny, so we ordered a couple more, and we decided to make it the home run hat."
According to Realmuto, there aren't enough hats for players to keep after hitting a homer — and the only reason he wore it to his press conference was because Phillies Director of Baseball Communications Greg Casterioto persuaded him to do so.
The Phillies aren't at the top of the home run stat charts in baseball. Their 62 heading into Tuesday night is ninth in the National League and 21st in the majors — but this is also a sport of superstitions. Maybe the straw hats will be good luck charms going forward.