A few weeks ago, members of the Red Sox traded in their baseballs and bats for bows and arrows.
But wait, it gets weirder.
Kutter Crawford, Jarren Duran, Chris Martin, Chase Shugart, and Connor Wong boarded a boat, and as night fell, competed to see how many fish they could shoot, Robin Hood-style.
It’s an excursion Crawford has done several times before. The captain of the vessel, Chris Santangelo, is the Red Sox right-hander’s best friend’s cousin.
Santangelo is several years older, but they all grew up in Okeechobee, Fla. He already had a hunting business when he began building the custom boat about two years ago.
“We can do freshwater trips all over South Florida,” Santangelo told the Herald. “For tilapia, snakeheads, bunch of different species of fish.”
Santangelo is used to boatloads of Major Leaguers, as well as other pro athletes, though he wanted other clients’ names to remain off the record. He’s also no stranger to bringing a film crew along, which was the case during this trip; the Netflix cameras, which are chronicling the entire ‘24 season, came along in a separate boat.
“We’ve done quite a few things for the Outdoor Channel, done a lot of filming in the past,” the captain said. “(Netflix) didn’t ask me no questions, they just asked the players some questions, and I drove the boat, shot some fish, that was it,” he added with a chuckle.
Much has been said about the level of competitiveness in this year’s Sox clubhouse. They’re eager to compete with opponents, and they compete with one another, but they’re also quite competitive with their own selves. Santangelo noticed that during their trip, too.
“They were harder on, like more competitive with themselves than with each other,” he recalled. “They weren’t upset that the other guys were killing more, they were getting upset when they missed.”
If the Sox wants to defy the general public’s low expectations in 2024, they’ll need, among other things, strong clubhouse chemistry. Unique group-bonding activities such as a night of bow-fishing, a fun, competitive activity, can help with that.
“It’s something that a lot of them like doing as a different experience,” Santangelo said. “It’s just a fun time to get a group of guys together. A lot of hunting is a slow, quiet, high-stress type deal. This is just, go have fun, talk loud, don’t be quiet, just have a good time.”
Combined, the Sox caught between 20-30 fish, all tilapia. Who shot the most?
“Kutter, easy,” Martin said.