Chicago Cubs took April Fools’ Day way too seriously

Someone should have told the Chicago Cubs that April Fools’ Day is just a joke.

You have to give the Chicago Cubs credit. While celebrating April Fools’ Day, they managed to stay in character the entire day! A trickster’s commitment to his or her craft is essential to pull off a truly epic April Fools joke and the Cubbies did just that.

It started with a classic mock cologne commercial in which they were promoting the Scents of Wrigley, a fragrance capturing the essence of Wrigley Field. Anyone who has seen a fragrance commercial knows they are absurd and border on the psychedelic, so this gag was well done and earned the Cubs a tip of the cap.

However, the Cubs were not done! They carried that momentum into their night game with the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park. It was a risky move for the Cubs to push their luck and attempt to pull off another outstanding prank. Lesser pranksters would have quit while they were ahead, but not the Cubs. No, no, no — they didn’t quit until they were behind — by eight runs.

In the process of committing six errors on their way to an 8-0 loss, the Cubs put one over on those gullible suckers from Atlanta who were clearly under the mistaken belief that they were playing a legitimate game of baseball.

The joke was on them though! Though one can certainly understand the Braves falling for this prank. The Cubs walked a fine line of appearing to give maximum effort while simultaneously looking like the gang who couldn’t shoot straight.

Be it a ground ball, fly ball, or simple flip to first base, the Cubs managed to take the most mundane play and turn it into a Benny Hill routine.

At one point, I fully expected Joe Maddon to emerge from the dugout in the 8th inning to make a pitching change only to rip off a mask to reveal himself as Coach Morris Buttermaker. Perhaps even bring in Kelly Leak to finish out the game and complete the bit.

But kudos to the Cubs for never tipping their hand. As a result, they pulled off one of the greatest April Fools gags in MLB history. But just to be safe, someone may want to tell them April Fools’ Day is just a joke before their next game.