http://youtu.be/2llUpTmIkdc
It took Major League Baseball veteran Jeff Francoeur a whole month to realise that he was being pranked.
Starting at a new team will always involved the odd prank or a bit of hazing, even if you're a veteran, and that's exactly what happened to poor aul Jeff Francoeur, who his new team-mates at the El Paso Chihuahuas (the AAA affiliate of the San Diego Padres) have politely described as "an idiot".
The prank began as a result of a practice where a 'heads up!' call was made to alert people to a ball that was dropping, and everyone except Jorge Reyes, a pitcher, moved and reacted. Francouer asked why and was told that Reyes was deaf, and he never questioned that response.
To be fair to "Frenchy", as they call him, there was a serious amount of effort put into this prank, where Reyes stopped wearing his headphones around the place, and even Jorge's wife was involved, telling him that she communicated with her husband using only text messages and hand signals.
The video shows a few of his fellow players describing Jeff's stupidity pretty clearly, as well as his reaction when he finally finds out that Jorge isn't deaf at all (skip ahead to the 5:50 mark if you want to see that). He takes it all pretty well, it has to be said.
Hat-tip to NY Daily News
