Nick Castellanos hits home run hours after Biden drops out of 2024 presidential race
PITTSBURGH (CBS) -- Nick Castellanos' timing is uncanny. Hours after President Biden announced he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, the Phillies outfielder smacked a no-doubter home run to left field in the ninth inning as Philadelphia beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-0, on Sunday.
Castellanos almost homered in the fourth inning against Pittsburgh — he hit one off the wall that went 383 feet. But he came through several innings later.
In his MLB career, Castellanos has built quite a reputation for going yard when a major news story breaks or a tragedy — and he nearly always delivers. Just last week, Castellanos hit a homer on the same day of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
Xander Vlogs, a YouTube channel, has a video titled "Nick Castellanos bad timing compilation 2023 UPDATED" featuring his ill-timed homers. After Sunday, it'll need to be updated once again.
It started during his time with the Cincinnati Reds and continued during his time in Philly. On the same day a portion of I-95 collapsed in 2023 in Philadelphia, Castellanos hit a home run against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After Castellanos sent one into the seats on Sunday, it sent plenty of X users, formerly Twitter, into a frenzy.
"Nick Castellanos homers on the day Joe Biden drops out of the presidential race," @here4baseball_ wrote on X.
"A new pope has white smoke. A new national insanity has Nick Castellanos," Benjamin Solak, of The Ringer, wrote following Castellanos's home run.
"If you're a sports fan and you don't know about Nick Castellanos' super power spend 10 minutes looking up his long history of hitting home runs during or shortly after big national news," X user Sean Higgins wrote.
The win on Sunday helped the Phillies avoid a sweep against the Pirates. They'll begin a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins on the road on Monday.
Correction: A previous version of this story said Castellanos hit a home run when the Phillies honored Queen Elizabeth II, but he was on the injured list during that time.