{"id":654267,"date":"2026-03-31T11:28:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T11:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/654267\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T11:28:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T11:28:25","slug":"how-a-danny-mcbride-movie-inspired-the-orioles-latest-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/654267\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Danny McBride movie inspired the Orioles\u2019 latest celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the final moments of the Orioles\u2019 pregame hitting meeting on opening day, those gathered realized a critical omission in their season preparation. When one of them got on base, what would they do?<\/p>\n

For the past two years, Baltimore\u2019s players engaged in a series of water-themed<\/a> celebrations<\/a> that spawned the Bird Bath Splash Zone in left field<\/a>. The pitchers in the dugout would spray water out of their mouths and batters mimicked a sprinkler motion upon reaching second base on doubles.<\/p>\n

But this is a new season and a new era. There\u2019s a new leadership team with manager Craig Albernaz<\/a> and others, and while many of the players are the same as previous seasons, those within the hitting meeting agreed that something new would be ideal.<\/p>\n

So, here it is: The bird-hand celebration \u2026 or a butterfly \u2026 or whatever the Orioles call it. They haven\u2019t really figured out the name. For the sake of this story, it\u2019ll be called the Flapping Wings, because that\u2019s how catcher Adley Rutschman described it. And it was his idea, after all.<\/p>\n

Even before the hitting meeting, Rutschman seemed locked in on his idea. <\/p>\n

\u201cHey, if I hit a double today, I\u2019m doing it,\u201d Rutschman told infielder Coby Mayo.<\/p>\n

Of course, Rutschman hit a double. And then he bent low and wrapped his thumbs together, then wiggled his fingers like a bird. Or something. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis mind was set and he hit the double and he had first dibs for it,\u201d Mayo said. \u201cSo it was kind of his opportunity to run with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inspiration was unclear at first. Jackson Holliday, who has since joined Triple-A Norfolk for a rehab assignment, thought it stemmed from the Happy Hands Club scene of \u201cNapoleon Dynamite.\u201d<\/a> Outfielder Dylan Beavers thought it was a butterfly. Rutschman set the record straight.<\/p>\n

His hand-wiggling celebration is a nod to Danny McBride in the 2013 movie \u201cThis Is the End,\u201d which came out when Rutschman was 15 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cHilarious movie,\u201d Rutschman said, before describing in great detail the scene in which McBride (playing a fictionalized version of himself) doesn\u2019t realize the world is ending and cooks all of the group\u2019s rations. As McBride cooks the eggs, the camera turns to an over-the-skillet view, and McBride connects his thumbs and wiggles his fingers. Rutschman cracks up even thinking about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just the funniest thing,\u201d Rutschman said.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Rutschman hit the first double of the season, and his teammates in the dugout waited to see what he\u2019d do. The wing-flapping finger wiggle came next, and it has stuck so far as the new Orioles celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cStuff gets worn out, and it just doesn\u2019t have the same excitement that it did,\u201d said Rutschman when asked about this group creating a new tradition rather than returning to the waterworks theme. \u201cI think guys always want to come up with something new, or try to, with the celebrations and stuff, because everyone wants to get to be excited when they get to do something new. It\u2019s a small part of the game, but a fun part.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, this is very much a work in progress. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnce Adley got the double, he kind of set the tone with the boys,\u201d infielder Jeremiah Jackson said. \u201cWe were kind of waiting for someone to get the double and break the ice, and from there, we just kind of ran with it. That\u2019s where we are now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Orioles don\u2019t have a home run celebration yet, so when outfielder Tyler O\u2019Neill blasted one Sunday, he just \u201cslapped a bunch of hands\u201d in the dugout. As the group meshes together, the rest of the celebrations will grow organically.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s not even a guarantee Baltimore sticks with the McBride-inspired hand gesture. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if this is going to stick for the whole year. It could, it could not,\u201d Mayo said. \u201cIt\u2019s been cool so far. Whenever guys are bought into something, it\u2019s good for team morale.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least for now, though, Rutschman is getting the chance to pay tribute to one of his favorite movies quite a lot. He has four hits this year. Three of them have been two-baggers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During the final moments of the Orioles\u2019 pregame hitting meeting on opening day, those gathered realized a critical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,39604,47,2538,5,1404,60,4,83679,12212,23849,125,148],"class_list":["post-654267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-city","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-baltimoreorioles","tag-baseball","tag-camden-yards","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-napolean-dynamite","tag-os","tag-opacy","tag-orioles","tag-twins"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116323556154488520","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}