Comedian Shane Gillis shares story of Royals’ Vinnie Pasquantino calling his shot
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Shane Gillis recounts Royals visit after Guardians game and Pasquantino bonding.
- Gillis wagers $100 that Vinnie Pasquantino will homer; Pasquantino accepts.
- Next day Pasquantino hits a fourth-inning homer and celebrates with teammates.
Following a game against the Guardians last April, some of the Royals players went to see a Shane Gillis show in Cleveland.
The comedian was playing at Rocket Arena, which is adjacent to Progressive Field, so the Royals didn’t have far to travel. After the show, Gillis met with the Royals, and first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino made quite the impression.
During a recent episode of his Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast, Gillis recalled that night.
“A couple of guys from the Royals came to the show,” Gillis said, “and then most of the guys were like,’ Yeah, we gotta dip out. We’ve got a game tomorrow.’ Not the Pasquatch.”
Comedian Dan Soder picked up the story.
“Bobby Witt Jr. and all the Royals were like, ‘All right, we’re going back. We’ve got to play tomorrow, during the day.’ Then Pasquatch looks down,” Soder said. “He goes, ‘You guys going out? He goes, ‘(Forget) it, I’m DHing, I’ll go out with you guys.’ And then right as he said that, Shane goes, ‘Hundred dollars, you’re gonna hit a home run.’ And Vinnie was like, ‘Book it.’ And then we went out.”
The group decided to go to a casino and on the way, Pasquantino had second thoughts.
“We get to a red light, and you can see the Pasquatch was thinking to himself, I should probably get to bed,” Gillis said. “I gotta play the Cleveland (Guardians) tomorrow. He just gets out of the Uber at a red light. He was like, he’d been silent for like 15 minutes, and before that, he was chatting a little. And then all of a sudden, you can see the wheels were turning for a while, he goes, ‘You know what, guys? I gotta go in.’”
Soder said: “I respected it because it was the best duck and roll I’ve seen out of a car in a while.”
The next day, Pasquantino came up in the fourth inning and lined a 1-2 pitch from the Guardians’ Luis Ortiz into the right-field stands.
Soder’s wife, Katie Nolan, was quite excited about Pasquantino’s homer.
“Katie was going nuts. I told her about it, and we landed in D.C.,” Soder said. “She’s like, ‘Vinnie went yard! Vinnie went yard!’ It was great.”
After the game, Witt sent Gillis a photo of Pasquantino in an ice bath flashing a thumbs up.
You can see the clip here of Gillis’ story, but be warned there is cursing.
This story was originally published April 8, 2026 at 9:55 AM.
