Kenta Maeda dresses as old man to prank youth baseball team in Japan – Yahoo Sports

Everybody loves a good prank, and few could argue the prank Kenta Maeda recently pulled on a youth baseball team in Japan was anything less than glorious.

During an appearance on a Japanese game show, the Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander channeled the “Uncle Drew” character created by Cleveland Cavaliers star Kyrie Irving, meaning he dressed as an old man with designs on schooling some baseball hopefuls.

Check it out.

If you’ve attended a family reunion or a community picnic, it’s possible you’ve taken some swings against your grandfather or another elder statesmen. What you don’t expect in those situations is a major-league fastball humming in with perfect accuracy. That’s exactly what these stunned young players faced, but imagine the thrill once they learned it was their hero providing the heat.

And make no mistake, Maeda is a hero back in his homeland. After finishing third in the National League Rookie of the Year voting, he returned home a bigger star than when he left. As a result, he’s no doubt been in high demand, which included his appearance on this game show.

By the way, we’re not entirely sure what the premise of this game show is. We just know they put some really serious effort into pulling off this prank, as evidenced by this video of Maeda’s preparation.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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