Beltre’s prank nails Hargrove

MINNEAPOLIS – More than a million immigrants and supporters walked off the job nationwide to rally for immigrant rights – so why not some of the Seattle Mariners?

That’s the last thing manager Mike Hargrove expected to hear Monday as the team prepared to play the Minnesota Twins.

But Adrian Beltre – whose father-in-law in California took the day off as part of the national boycott – gathered Seattle’s foreign-born Latino players for a prank on Hargrove. They told him they felt they had to honor the boycott.

“Three times he asked, ‘Are you serious?’” Beltre said. “He really bought it.”

Eddie Guardado gave it away by laughing.

“For the longest time, I didn’t buy it,” Hargrove said. “But there was about 15 seconds where I thought they were on the level.”

–Associated Press