Their home run celebration is simple. It is almost too simple to be called a handshake, really, just a few movements that look so instinctive they might as well be automatic. When Phillies third base coach Dusty Wathan sees Rhys Hoskins hit a ball out of the park, he waits for the first baseman to round the corner toward home and then he slaps his hand and gives him a pat on the butt. See? That’s all it is.
This simple gesture, though, was chosen deliberately. It means something to both of them, and it has been shaped by years of waiting and hoping and working.
It started when Wathan was Hoskins’s manager with the Double A Reading Fightin Phils in 2016. He hadn’t yet coached in the big leagues, and, of course, most of his roster had never been there, either. So Wathan studied how the Phillies’ third base coach at the time, Juan Samuel, celebrated home runs—a quick hand slap followed by a pat on the ass. It was nothing special. But Wathan decided he would mimic it with his team. This is getting you ready for the big leagues, he’d joke. So you’ll know what to do after your first home run in Philadelphia. It was a reminder of what they were all working toward.
