The San Diego Padres had a pitching matchup yesterday that made for some hilarious clubhouse moments given the source.
Clubhouse humor comes in all shapes and forms, especially in spring training, and the San Diego got an especially unique version of it yesterday in a pitching matchup against the Los Angeles Angels that featured a Farris-Buehler pairing as Mitch Farris faced off against Walker Buehler.
The movie reference may have whizzed over the heads of younger players, but Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com didn’t miss a trick on this one. He interviewed Angels manager Kurt Suzuki, who also didn’t miss the tie-in to “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” which came out back in 1986.
“Ferris Bueller?” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said with a smile as the coincidence quickly grew into a running joke in the clubhouse.
Suzuki did admit to not having seen the move, though, which is shameful given that one of the key scenes is a memorable vignette in which Bueller, who was played by Matthew Broderick, visits Wrigley Field to watch the Chicago Cubs along with his fellow truants.
“I haven’t seen it,” Suzuki said with a laugh. “But I’ve seen bits and pieces.”
The Padres definitely got the best of this matchup, though. Buehler has probably heard every joke about the classroom roll-call scene that features his surname repeated ad infinitum. He pitched well yesterday, however, giving up two runs on five hits in 3-2/3 innings as San Diego won, 10-2.
His pitching counterpart got the humor, though.
“I've seen the movie but I didn't put two and two together though,” Farris said. “I was focused on the game. But I mean Maddux [pitching coach Mike Maddux], he messes with me, calls me ‘Bueller’ all the time. But I didn’t realize it. I’ve seen the movie, though. Cool connection.”
Buehler, meanwhile, is making a competitive run for the fifth starting spot in San Diego. The problem he’s had is that he can still pitch, but Buehler sometimes has trouble repeating his delivery, and when he’s up in the zone he gets hit hard.
Movie references aside, the time to watch for this is late in the spring, when he starts to ramp up and stretch out, but going more than three innings is a good sign that he can stay competitive.
The Padres have a strong bullpen that can pick him up, so the demands would be less that he’d faced in recent stops with the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox, with both teams playing in smaller parks where Buehler is especially vulnerable.