We've already talked about the conclusion of the national anthem at Game 6 of the NLCS, wherein Joe Kelly of the Cardinals and Scott Van Slyke of the Dodgers stood in front of their respective dugouts until the last possible second in a star-spangled standoff.
As it turns out, the entirety of the showdown was spontaneous, David Brown of Yahoo! Sports reports. Kelly and Van Slyke don't know each other at all. The two have never even met.
"He kind of gave me a smile, like, 'I'm going to be out here longer than you are,'" Van Slyke said to Brown. "From there, I didn't want him to be out there longer than I was. I was just going to wait for the home plate umpire to start yelling at me."
Of course, there was a ball game to play. Home plate umpire Greg Gibson finally did start yelling.
St. Louis starter Michael Wacha told Brown the antics he saw from the dueling dugouts calmed him down as he stood on the mound with the game about to begin, eventually notching a two-hit outing over seven innings.
Wacha said he heard Gibson yell: " 'Y’all just go back at the same time. Just go back!'"
Kelly has been the last man standing for the few games leading up to Friday night's Game 6, though he didn't think any of the Dodgers noticed from the other dugout.
"He probably saw me and was, like, ‘All right, I’m going to beat him today.’" Kelly said. "I just stood there the whole time."
Van Slyke's dugout erupted in applause and cheers when it looked like the Dodgers outfielder had outlasted Kelly.
The Cardinals pitcher used his veteran standoff tactics to outsmart the rookie participant, who went back into the Dodgers dugout.
"He would say that he won, but I definitely went for a decoy," Kelly said. "I went for the fake step and he started to walk off into the dugout and I still stood there on the grass. There’s no balking in the anthem standoff. It’s a legal move to deke."
