Pranks have been harder to pull off this season with so many front office staffers working remotely, Cashman said. But recently, when Matt Daley, a director of pro scouting, who lives in New Jersey, went to Yankee Stadium for a meeting held mostly on Zoom to go over the team’s potential playoff opponents, Cashman had a rare in-person target.

So Cashman said he sneaked out of his office and tossed party snaps — the type that make firecracker-like sounds — into the conference room where Daley was sitting during the video call.

Eppler said he had also been the target of party snap blitzes during presentations, as well as a clicker pen that shocks users. Cashman occasionally gave it to him when he was signing official documents.

“I’ve probably forgotten half the stuff I’ve pulled,” Cashman said.

He did remember, though, a few he had inflicted on players. He was the architect behind the drafting of a prank letter from the Internal Revenue Service to Rivera in 2013, the final season of the pitcher’s 19-year career, about a payment owed on behalf of his charity.

“He was so nervous because the number was so astronomical,” Cashman said.

Cashman said he once gave the former outfielder Nick Swisher a prank scratch lottery ticket that produced a $50,000 winner. (He told Swisher he had picked it up at a gas station on the way to Yankee Stadium that day.) Swisher, in the middle of a $27 million contract, raced up and down the hallways in delight at his apparent good fortune.

The instructions on the back read: “Claim forms supplied by Santa Claus. All winning tickets must be validated by the Tooth Fairy and conform to her game rules.” (Cashman keeps these and the party snaps in his office desk.)

Source: New York Times

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