Red Sox ride home run laundry cart to ALCS against Astros

BOSTON (AP) — It was the middle of the pandemic, the Boston Red Sox stunk, and with major league ballparks empty in 2020, they couldn’t even count on the crowd to get them going. During one especially humdrum road game at the Rays' Tropicana Field, coach Jason Varitek suggested they needed to put some fun back into the game.

The words had barely left his lips when Christian Vázquez hit a homer. So backup catcher Kevin Plawecki grabbed a nearby laundry cart, waited for Vázquez to return to the dugout, and told him, “Hey, hop in.”

“We hadn’t talked about it — nothing,” Plawecki said on Wednesday. "He sat right in, and I pushed him. And ever since it’s been our thing, I guess.”

The 2004 Red Sox were “The Idiots.” In ’13 they grew bushy beards. And if the 2021 team performs like its predecessors and wins the World Series, the lingering image could be “Tunnel Time” — the home run laundry cart drive through the dugout.

Started on a lark in a last-place season, the Red Sox have continued the celebration this year and ridden it all the way to a spot in the AL Championship Series, which begins Friday night in Houston.

“It looked great in a difficult season for them to be able to find something that’s fun, and be able to celebrate something in the game,” manager Alex Cora said. “It means a lot for them. For them to have fun with that, that’s great.”

Sports teams have long found unique ways to celebrate their wins and other milestones, from the now routine post-victory Gatorade bath to jackets or jewelry awarded for big plays.

Even in baseball, where traditionalists sneer at anything that might seem disrespectful or undignified, teams haven't been afraid to show some personality.

The Phillies have a straw Home Run Hat, the...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Red-Sox-ride-home-run-laundry-cart-to-ALCS-16531298.php