His teammates call him “Musky” but you can call him the Musky Professor.
For the last couple of weeks, numerous BSN readers and listeners have sent us video footage highlighting a unique, and frankly hilariously brilliant, home run celebration from young lefty reliever Harrison Musgrave.
Whenever a member of the Colorado Rockies hits a homer over or into his own bullpen, Musgrave can be seen by eagle-eyed viewers clapping his hands together and cracking a smile in a direct reference to the classic 1996 Eddie Murphy comedy.
“Absolutely… it’s Hercules, Hercules… it’s the whole ordeal,” he told us about the inspiration.
But when did it become his go-to move?
“It started maybe half-way through my time up last year,” he says. “I just started one day and then just kept doing it. Other teams have full-blown celebrations and we cheer and everything but it gave me something unique to do, I guess. And end up on the internet for it,” he added with a chuckle.
It went a bit under the radar for a while but fans and now teammates are starting to notice and embrace it.
“It’s funny,” Musgrave continued, “Nolan hit a home run in Atlanta and saw it and asked me about it and on the bus back they asked me to stand up and do it so everyone could witness it in its full glory.”
It may seem silly to say about a guy making a reference to a movie that came out in the mid-90’s, four years after Musgrave was born, but these are the kinds of fun moments that can bring teams together and help to endure the grind of a 162-game season.
“It’s cool, it’s something lighthearted to do,” Musgrave says. And on a team full of intense and serious, but still fun-loving ballplayers, they need someone like Musky to remind them to find their times to have fun and enjoy each day in the game.
However, he has yet to gain much traction with his celebration. Everyone seems to be getting a kick out of it but no one has joined in just yet.
“I’m kind of disappointed in myself that I haven’t gotten more people to get into it but you’ve got to embrace the fact that you look like an idiot doing it. Which is fine, I’m cool with that.”
But seasons are long and these kinds of things grow organically from memes to movements. And there is a lot of time.
“Who knows? Maybe it’ll catch on,” says Musgrave. “But there will be chances for more guys to do it because we are going to hit a lot more home runs this year.”
