Crotch shot makes Sibley baseball player an internet sensation – TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press

No, Dan O’Reilly was not wearing a cup.

No, he will not wear one when Henry Sibley begins the Class 3A state baseball tournament June 16.

“I don’t think it’s a requirement,” O’Reilly said Wednesday afternoon. “That’s how I’ve been rolling all season and it’s seemed to work, so I’ll stick with it.”

It certainly has made him a bit famous.

O’Reilly has become something of an internet meme since fouling a ball into his crotch late in a 20-1 victory over South St. Paul in the Class 3A, Section 3 championship game Monday. O’Reilly’s friend, Andrew Zuckerman, initially posted the footage on his Twitter account Tuesday night. The footage was pulled from the delayed game broadcast by Town Square Television, a station in Inver Grove Heights. Watch the entire clip here (around the 1:54:30 mark).

It has since been picked up by several web sites.

“I had two strikes on me and I didn’t want to strike out looking,” O’Reilly said. “I got a pitch high and inside and just wanted to fight it off. Unfortunately, I fought it into the wrong spot.”

It was just the second at-bat of the season for O’Reilly, a junior outfielder who recently scored a 36 on his ACT. He was pinch-hitting Monday with the Warriors, the sixth seed in the district tournament, on the verge of 10-running the top-seeded Packers in the fifth inning. Henry Sibley went on to beat South St. Paul again on Tuesday to earn its trip to state.

It’s important to note that O’Reilly is fine.

“I got home, grabbed a bag of frozen peas and was good to go the next morning,” he said.

His performance is both entertaining and admirable.

After taking one for the team, O’Reilly immediately grabbed the affected area, then worked his way around foul territory, alternately crouching, lying down, sticking his hands down his pants and, finally, “dabbing” for the crowd.

“I was pretty out of it,” he said. “I don’t remember much. I remember throwing my helmet. I remember that I was not very happy, and that I was not coming out of the game.”

O’Reilly eventually got back into the box finished the at-bat with a pop-out.

“I don’t even think I made it to first base,” he said. “Went straight to the dugout and grabbed some ice.”

While his teammates celebrated, he was crouching near a fence, alone with this thoughts. At school Wednesday, his teachers shared the video in their classes.

“People keep coming up to me and saying, ‘Oh, you’re famous,’ and I’m like, ‘Maybe,’ ” he said. “But it just keeps spreading. I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.”