MINNEAPOLIS -- Thanks to the Twins’ social media team, it looks like Halloween in August is the new Christmas in July.
What better way to get the blood pumping ahead of a quick turnaround for a Sunday day game after a Saturday night game than with a scare prank involving fake spiders hidden in boxes?
Players arriving at Target Field on Sunday were greeted with two small wooden boxes at a table in the entryway from the player parking lot, asking them to pick and open one -- and when they did so, either contraption would spring a small rubber spider onto their hand.
Some players were wiser to the prank than others, of course.
“This is why I have trust issues right here,” said rookie starter Simeon Woods Richardson as he examined the boxes before opening one.
Kyle Farmer typically has a heightened sense of suspicion when the social media team gets involved, considering he’s the one who has most notably been scared into expletive-ridden reactions by the Twins’ two consecutive years of Star Wars Day scare pranks.
True to form, Farmer’s caution paid off as he got away unscathed -- as did Willi Castro, who claimed to have the prank boxes at home, too.
“I knew it was something,” Farmer said with a smirk.
Others weren’t so lucky -- most notably Max Kepler and Jorge Alcala, who gave loud shrieks as they sprang away from the box and their new arachnid friend.
But perhaps the best way to conquer a scare prank is to avoid it all together -- and closer Jhoan Duran wisely opted out when his, well, spidey senses were tingling.
“Oh, I know that,” said Duran, mindfully and demurely. “Thank you, but I’m not doing it.”