Phillies’ Nick Castellanos Commemorates Meme Anniversary With Another Deep Drive

It’s hard to believe it’s already been three years since one of the strangest sports broadcasting moments in recent memory unfolded before our eyes on live TV when then-Reds play-by-play man Thom Brennaman—an hour or so after a hot mic picked him up uttering an anti-LGBTQ slur on air—offered an apology during the team’s game against the Royals on Aug. 19, 2020.

During that apology, then-Reds outfielder Nick Castellanos hit a home run, and Brennaman, for some reason, felt it necessary to interrupt his apology to make a note that Castellanos had hit “a drive into deep left field.” By now, you’ve almost certainly seen the clip.

Since then, Castellanos has made it something of a habit by homering while unrelated-but-serious things are happening. So it’s fitting that the king of comedic timing marked Saturday’s anniversary by, you guessed it, hitting another home run.

On August 19, 2020, Nick Castellanos homered during Thom Brennaman's slur apology, launching a meme.

On August 19, 2023, Nick Castellanos homered once more. pic.twitter.com/0Z09GMVNV2

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) August 20, 2023

This time he went to right field with the blast, but that’s close enough. The phrase “a drive into deep left field by Castellanos” has its own Wikipedia page entry, so the episode is unlikely to be forgotten any time soon.

If Castellanos continues to launch balls into the stands each Aug. 19, the memory of that strange sequence will continue to live on.