Derek Shelton stuck the landing with his celebration for David Bednar over the weekend.
Bednar has enjoyed a breakout since arriving with the Pittsburgh Pirates prior to last season, and in 2022 he has emerged as one of the top closers in the game.
The 27-year-old, who grew up just north of Pittsburgh, was named to his first-ever All-Star Game over the weekend. It was a deserved honor for Bednar, who will be the Pirates’ lone representative next week at Dodger Stadium.
Shelton, the Bucs manager, commemorated the honor by gifting Bednar a case of local Pittsburgh beer, giving him a 30-rack of IC Light. However, the Pirates were in Milwaukee when they learned of Bednar’s nomination, and Shelton shared during his weekly appearance on 93.7 The Fan how the gift idea came about.
"It was really exciting," Shelton said Tuesday on "The Cook and Joe Show". "No. 1: David Bednar deserves to be an All-Star, first and foremost. I think the second thing, any time you are representing a team you grew up rooting for, your hometown team, it's even more special. Last year I had started a thing with (Adam) Frazier and (Bryan) Reynolds when they got to the All-Star Game, bought them bottles of champagne. A nice, commemorative something for them to celebrate, wrote on it.
"I kind of assumed David would be our All-Star, I did not know, but before we left we were traveling with a 30-rack of IC Light because I didn't think I was going to be able to get IC Light in Milwaukee and just wanted to present it to him. He's a blue-collar kid, he's a Pittsburgh guy and I know he likes IC Light.
"So I just came out and said normally we celebrate with a bottle of champagne -- and I don't use the term yinzer very often because I'm not a born-and-bred Pittsburgh person -- but I said I know the yinzers would like a 30-rack. The smile on his face, I don't know if the smile on his face was as big for the fact that he got 30 free lagers or the fact that he was making the All-Star team, but he was pretty excited about both."
We might be watching Bednar’s final days in Pittsburgh, as he’s widely expected to draw a ton of interest ahead of the MLB trade deadline. He's taking it in stride, though, and judging by Pittsburgh’s reported response to such inquiries, it might not be a foregone conclusion that he’ll finish his season elsewhere.
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