Pederson celebrates HR with ... waffle maker

Waffles > bat flips

April 7th, 2021

There are few things on Earth that are guaranteed to provide pure joy: A baby's laugh. The taste of a fresh summer peach. A home run. And, as all brunch enthusiasts know, a waffle maker. So, it makes perfect sense that Joc Pederson received one to celebrate his game-tying eighth-inning home run against the Brewers on Wednesday afternoon in the Cubs' eventual 4-2 loss. Doesn't hurt that it was his first hit as a Cubs player, too.

Pederson was definitely excited by the present, even pantomiming eating through the box:

Pederson should make sure to be careful with it, though. That waffle maker may not be his to keep.

"I hope we're making a lot of waffles," Pederson said after the game. "I don't know. It's [Ian] Happer's. I think I just rented it for a minute, but we'll see. Hopefully we're passing out waffles soon to all of us."

The two had actually discussed the waffle maker the night before when Pederson and Happ were texting about the game. They thought this might be the trick to waking up the team's bats.

"Happ says, 'Yeah, I'm bringing the waffle maker. You know, you're gonna waffle some balls,'" Pederson said. "It was pretty funny."

This isn't a new celebration for the Cubs, though. They've actually been celebrating with the breakfast device since 2018 thanks to Happ and former Cub Tommy La Stella.

“When a guy hits a ball hard, it’s considered waffling a baseball,” Happ told The Chicago Tribune toward the end of that season. “So Tommy (La Stella) and I talked about it in April, and we should put a waffle maker in the dugout.

“During that long stretch (of 30 games), we were going to start something. I said let’s get one in here and lighten it up. We got it for three days and it got broken in Milwaukee somehow. I was pretty upset and sad about it.”

They quickly bought some more (with more donated from fans) and plenty of players, including Javier Báez, got a chance to celebrate in the dugout with every kitchen's most necessary accessory.

Now that the team's newest outfielder has been outfitted with his own waffle maker, it's probably time for the team to start branching out. The clubhouse could probably use a food processor or an ice cream maker.