OT: Astros AAA team gets a Will Ferrell Boost

Submitted by formerlyanonymous on

As bad as the Astros minor league system is, they at least made it entertaining last night.

Will made his minor league debut, under the name Rojo Johnson, at Round Rock last night. He threw one pitch before being ejected. He sported a huge mustache, gold chains, and a beer (while on the mound).

This was a publicity thing for his charity work, as he was in the greater Austin area for a gig this weekend. Pretty cool.

MLB.com has the full video here, including the motioning of adjusting his cup when talking smack to the hitter (also an actor).

BlueDog

May 7th, 2010 at 11:14 AM ^

I believe they now call the Orlando area minor league club "Florida Astros", but for one glorious year, they played as the "Kissimmee Astros".......the greatest real team name of all time.!

MGoShoe

May 7th, 2010 at 12:29 PM ^

...commenter "rodreel's" response to the team's faux presrel:

During the week, Express CEO Reid Ryan -- Nolan Ryan's son -- made the following announcement on the team's web site:

"The Round Rock Express have acquired Billy Ray "Rojo" Johnson. The right-handed pitcher will be in uniform for Thursday's 7:05 p.m. CDT game against the Nashville Sounds. Johnson, who was born in East Texas but was raised in Venezuela, recently had his prison sentence commuted. He served time for running a smuggling ring that imported rare and illegal species of reptiles into the United States from South America during the mid-to-late 1990s. Thursday night's game marks Johnson's first in American professional baseball after a storied career in the Venezuelan leagues."

And "rodreel" takes the bait:

"I'm sorry but no matter how well this convict pitches he shouldn't be allowed at Dell Diamond. These convicts are a dime a dozen and you don't hear about them much because they are shunned by baseball. What will this guy do if he figures a bad call was made? How might his actions influence his team mates and the Round Rock tradition?"

Gotta protect that "Round Rock tradition", don't you know.

El Jeffe

May 7th, 2010 at 1:12 PM ^

Ssshhhh....! If you laugh too hard, this will get green-lit as the next mildly funny but mostly disappointing Will Ferrell sports movie: High and Hard: The Rojo Johnson Story.

If you care about sports or cinema or Will Ferrell, don't encourage this sort of behavior.

Steve Lorenz

May 7th, 2010 at 1:36 PM ^

Funny that they don't get mentioned as one of the worst run organizations in sports......they are full of over-the-hill veterans and as you said have a poor farm system. I've owned Jio Mier for two years now in a fantasy dynasty and he looks pretty legit, but they'll have to hit on their two first rounders this year in order to move in a positive direction. 

formerlyanonymous

May 7th, 2010 at 2:00 PM ^

They weren't run too poorly for the longest time. Even into the early 2000s, they had one of the better farm systems in the league. They traded a lot away for their pennant runs in the middle of the decade and had no replenishment. A lot of their major prospects turned into major busts. Buck has been meh at Kansas City, Chris Burke never made it, Adam Everett never made it consistently, JR Towles is back at AA. Now it's just a waiting game on Castro. He should be up in late July from my understanding.

Wade has turned it around a little, but there have been a couple strange transactions over the last few years, some his, some from the previous administration. Preston Wilson, Jose Valverde, Kaz Matsui, etc all come to mind. Carlos Lee wasn't a bad pick up at the time, but he's gotten up the age bracket as well.

Steve Lorenz

May 7th, 2010 at 2:18 PM ^

For a team that's consistently been hovering around the top 10 as far as salaries are concerned, they haven't shown any sign of success since their WS appearance in 05. Their free agent signings have been beyond awful (Matsui, Myers, Lyon are just recent examples) and even their major league level players that developed have never really lived up to full potential....guys like Pence and Wandy. Wade just seems like he doesn't know what he's doing. The Brandon Lyon signing was arguably the worst FA signing in the last five years, especially when they got a better back-end pitcher (Lindstrom) for 20% the price.