Jay Johnstone

Baseball career

Johnstone was signed as an amateur free agent by the Los Angeles Angels in 1963 and made his major-league debut in July 1966. On July 3, 1970, while with the Angels, he preserved Clyde Wright's no-hitter against the Athletics by catching a Reggie Jackson fly ball 400 feet from home plate in straightaway center field. After a season in which he batted .238 with 39 RBIs and 11 home runs, Johnstone was traded to the White Sox on November 30, 1970, along with Tom Egan and Tom Bradley.

As a Phillie, he went 7-for-9 in the 1976 National League Championship Series, though the Reds swept the series. On June 14, 1978, he and Bobby Brown were sent to the Yankees for Rawly Eastwick. With the Dodgers, Johnstone hit a pinch-hit, two-run home run in Game Four of the 1981 World Series, rallying the Dodgers from a 6–3 deficit to win 8–7 and tie the Series at two games each; Los Angeles won the next two games to take the championship.

Clubhouse prankster

Johnstone was a master of clubhouse mischief. He once slid a soggy brownie into Steve Garvey’s first baseman’s mitt, set his teammates’ cleats on fire in a classic “hot-foot,” snipped the crotch out of Rick Sutcliffe’s underwear, and trapped Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda in his own office during spring training. He also hammered teammates’ spikes to the clubhouse floor and swapped out the celebrity photos in Lasorda’s office for pictures of himself, Jerry Reuss, and Don Stanhouse.

In a 1981 game against Pittsburgh, Johnstone and Reuss disguised themselves as groundskeepers and dragged the Dodger Stadium infield in the fifth inning. Lasorda chewed them out and sent Johnstone to pinch-hit the next inning as punishment, but Johnstone smacked a home run. The following spring, he tied Lasorda’s motel room doorknob to a palm tree, locking the manager inside. Before one game, Johnstone climbed onto the Dodger dugout roof, walked through the field-level seats in full uniform, and bought a hot dog from a concession stand.

Another time, stuck in pregame traffic on the Golden State Freeway, he bolted from a taxi and sprinted in uniform toward the Stadium Way exit. He once donned Lasorda’s uniform with padding, ran to the mound carrying Lasorda’s book and a can of Slim Fast, and chatted with the pitcher. As a broadcaster, he laced a microphone with the smell of stale eggs before interviewing Dave “Smoke” Stewart and Mickey Hatcher. During a TV interview with Yankees Deion Sanders and Mel Hall, he faked a commercial break and tricked them into uncovering a bread basket that held a snake, sending both players leaping from their seats.

His 1984 Fleer baseball card shows him wearing a Budweiser Brockabrella umbrella hat; Johnstone insisted the photo was unplanned and that Budweiser sent him a free case of beer every summer.

Entertainment roles

Johnstone appeared in the movie The Naked Gun as a member of the Seattle Mariners in a game against the California Angels; although he was a left-handed hitter throughout his career, he bats right-handed in the film. After the Dodgers' 1981 World Series victory, Johnstone and teammates Rick Monday, Jerry Reuss, and Steve Yeager appeared on Solid Gold and sang their own rendition of Queen's We Are the Champions.