Blue Jays reporter Hazel Mae gets doused with Gatorade (Video)

TORONTO, ON - AUGUST 17: Justin Smoak
TORONTO, ON - AUGUST 17: Justin Smoak /
facebooktwitterreddit

Baseball sideline reporting can put the reporter in the line of liquid fire, and Hazel Mae had it happen to her, again.

On Thursday afternoon, Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Justin Smoak hit a decisive home run in the eighth inning to give his team a 5-3 win over Tampa Bay. That made him the easy subject for a postgame interview, and Sportsnet reporter Hazel Mae had the on-field duties for the game broadcast.

That job can be a bit dangerous for the reporter though, especially when some sort of liquid is targeted at, potentially poured on, the player being interviewed.

As Blue Jays pitcher Ryan Tepera approached from the dugout to unleash on, presumably, Smoak a cooler of orange Gatorade, Mae ended up taking the entire dousing.

It wasn’t the first time this has happened to Mae as she interviews someone after a game, but it is unique in that Smoak barely got wet at all. But Mae was a good sport about it, after having to cut her interview with Smoak short, with a little Twitter dig at Tepera’s lack of aim.

https://twitter.com/thehazelmae/status/898324601683329024

And Tepera responded with an offer to foot the dry cleaning bill for Mae.

The forced baseball tradition of dousing a teammate with Gatorade, water or whatever after a midseason win has surely run its course, and it straddles the line of possibly hurting the player. To say nothing of putting the reporter in some level of danger or risk, all after a win for a team like the Blue Jays that is going nowhere this season.

Next: Top 25 MLB trades of all-time

Go ahead and call me the fun police, and maybe I’m not well-versed enough in the makeup of the  Blue Jays’ bullpen. But I had never even heard of Tepera before now, and all because of a clown show postgame stunt that got him some unwarranted attention.