(610 Sports) -- If you've never seen Adam Sandler's 1996 sports comedy Happy Gilmore, then you'd probably be left dumbfounded after taking in Whit Merrifield's acting debut. The Royals' second baseman and teammate Kyle Zimmer took it upon themselves to enlist the team's social media content team, in spoofing a scene where Sandler promotes Subway's cold-cut combo sandwich.
Joining 610 Sport's Cody & Gold on Monday, Merrifield was promptly asked about the endorsement video, where instead of pimping cold cut combo's the duo was endorsing Sunshine energy drinks, a company Merrifield become part-owner of in 2020and is based out of his hometown of Winston-Salem, NC.
"Could you imagine being someone that's never seen Happy Gilmore, watching that for the first time," Merrifield asked? "They would be so confused," show host Cody Tapp responded.
It's a good point, the original scene which takes place in a diner, transitions from casual conversation over lunch to Sandler pivoting into full-blown endorsement mode, mid-sentence.
"Yeah, it was just a fun thing," Merrifield explained. "Every time I drink[sic], have a Sunshine in the locker room, Zim would come up to me and give me that 'I eat two a day to keep me strong' line from Happy Gilmore, and finally after a while, I was like 'alright, let's do it, let's just do a spinoff of that.' Got with the social media team, Sam(Lutz) and Jason(Hannah) did a great job helping me put it together and did a fantastic job editing it and making it pretty spot on."
"I don't know if you saw the video I put on my Twitter as well, but they did a side-by-side between ours and the actual movie, it's pretty good, it's pretty close," Merrifield said. "Minus the acting, obviously."
It should also be noted that Royals' reliever Scott Barlow makes an appearance during the hot tub scene, essentially replacing Happy Gilmore's grandmother from the original movie, a role that Royals starting pitcher Danny Duffy turned down, reportedly.
Catch the full interview with Whit Merrifield by clicking the player below: