- Will Smith cleared the fence during batting practice at Oracle Park on Friday
- Macklin Celebrini caught one flush but left it short of the water
- Read below for video of the home run, both players’ reactions and Smith’s baseball bloodline
Will Smith can hit a baseball.
The San Jose Sharks forward took batting practice with the San Francisco Giants before Friday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and one of his swings landed on the other side of the Oracle Park fence.
Smith was asked afterward what the home run felt like, and he had clearly been chasing it for a while.
“It was great. Been waiting for that,” Smith told Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now. “Felt different when it came off the bat.”
Watch the video of Smith going deep:
Macklin Celebrini stepped in and nearly matched him. His best swing banged off the Levi’s Landing sign in right field, a few feet from the water.
Celebrini graded the at-bat two ways. “I’m happy with it. Hitting one square is one of the best feelings,” he said, before adding that he was “kind of disappointed I didn’t get it over.”
Before any of that, Giants manager Tony Vitello stuck Smith at second base and rolled grounders at him. Vitello liked what he saw enough to compare the 21-year-old to Jeff Kent, and Smith said he asked for more heat on them.
Check out the infield audition:
None of this is an accident. Smith is the great-great grandson of Charles Comiskey, the founding owner of the Chicago White Sox, though the Massachusetts kid grew up rooting for the Red Sox.
Both players are coming off the best hockey of their lives. Celebrini put up 45 goals and 115 points in 82 games last season. Smith posted 24 goals and 59 points in 69 games in his second NHL year.
They are also moving in together this season, so the batting practice bragging rights are going to travel home with them.
Sharks training camp opens in mid-September, which gives Celebrini about two weeks to find another cage.
