ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – One of the biggest plays in baseball calls for a big celebration. From the youth level, all the way to major league baseball, plenty of teams have their own ways to celebrate a home run and the Isotopes have started to do the same.
During Wednesday night’s game, Elehuris Montero blasted a ball over the center field wall and put on a gas mask when he entered the dugout. Later in the game, Connor Kaiser also went yard and proceeded to wear the mask once he returned to the dugout. The new Isotopes’ homerun celebration had officially begun.
Homerun celebrations aren’t new to baseball. The Los Angeles Angels wear a samurai helmet, the Seattle Mariners carry a trident and the Minnesota Twins break out some fishing gear.
Isotopes infielder Hunter Stovall has been part of teams that participate in similar antics, and he wanted to bring the fun to Albuquerque. “I went around and asked…what could we do? Immediately the Breaking Bad thing came up,” said Stovall. He added, “I was sitting there thinking, thinking, thinking… and said let’s get a hazmat mask. It goes with the show. You got the Isotopes. The atomic bomb..so it goes with everything.”
Stovall wanted the celebration to honor the city of Albuquerque and the players voted on a gas mask to embrace the television series, Breaking Bad. He said he bought the mask for $35 on Amazon and believes that it helps energize the team. “It’s a long season…you got a lot of stuff going through your head…it brings the kid back out in us a little bit,” said Stovall.
The gas mask celebration now joins the mariachi hat, as players have previously donned it when sending a ball out of the park during mariachi nights.
