The St. Louis Cardinals had a viral moment happen in 2022, when Nolan Arenado sparked a benches-clearing incident with the New York Mets. After tensions had been brewing all day, the two teams got into an altercation.
In the middle of that benches-clearing showdown, Cardinals rookie Andre Pallante also got involved, backing up his veteran MLB teammates in his first MLB benches-clearing experience.
Years later, during an appearance on the Cardinal Territory podcast with Katie Woo, Pallante told the wild story of the aftermath of that benches-clearing incident, and how his teammates pulled a prank on him in his rookie year.
“I show up the next day,” Pallante began explaining. “And I’ve got this notice from the MLB like ‘hey, you’ve been fined $5,000 for running out onto the field. ‘Like, holy crap, I haven’t even received my first paycheck yet. I can’t pay this right now.”
A $5,000 fine is a lot, especially for a rookie who hasn’t been in the MLB for long. At this point, Pallante believes he’s going to be out $5,000 before he even gets his first paycheck, a very reasonable thing to be wary of. But, as he reveals, there is significantly more to the story of the fine.
“I checked with our clubhouse manager,” Pallante said. “And he’s like, ‘yeah, they deliver it, they sent it to us today, like, you know, it’s what you got.”
After the clubhouse manager sold the prank, Pallante was then approached by Harrison Bader for another layer of the prank to be added to things for Pallante.
“It was Bader who came up to me,” Pallante said. “And was like, ‘hey, ask ‘Nado to pay for it, because he’s the one that started the brawl and you just got his back.'”
In response to Bader saying Pallante should ask Arenado to pay for it, Pallante initially didn’t want to. Pallante said, “I guess I’ll just wear it.” But after Arenado hit a walk-off in the next game, Bader pushed Pallante one more time, and when he asked Arenado to pay for it, the prank was revealed.
“Arenado’s like ‘Nah, that’s on you.'” explained Pallante. “And they tell me that it was just a prank, and that Waino had them print it out and put it on my chair before I showed up that day.”
Not only did Pallante get pranked, but the entire clubhouse was in on it. From savvy veterans like Adam Wainwright and Arenado, to the clubhouse manager, Pallante was duped into believing he owed the MLB $5,000 for his role in the benches-clearing ‘brawl’ against the Mets.
Fortunately for Pallante, he wasn’t on the hook for $5,000. Though he finished his story by mentioning that even today, “They’ll stop at no lengths to get me for sure.”
