By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
Prior to the 2008 season, the Philadelphia Phillies pulled off one of the more memorable pranks on starting pitcher Kyle Kendrick, who was entering his first full season with the team.
As Leslie Gudel reminds us in this report, Brett Myers, Ruben Amaro Jr., Charlie Manuel, Kendrick's agent, former clubhouse director Frank Coppenbarger and the beat reporters convinced Kendrick, who was coming off of a rookie season where he went 10-4 with a 3.87 ERA, that he had been traded to Japan:
Every Spring Training, this video is shared, perhaps less than in the past few years since the Phillies moved on from the now-32-year-old, but it's still enjoyed by many each year.
Kendrick himself apparently isn't one of those people, according to a story in The Boston Herald:
“If it didn’t happen to me, I would have thought it was funny — and I would have felt bad,” said Kendrick, who pitched another strong game in the Red Sox’ 3-3 tie with the Phillies yesterday. “It’s hard to say until you’re the one in that position. Looking back, it didn’t affect me — I had a good first half. It was in the second half where I didn’t pitch well. But it could have messed with somebody mentally, a younger kid, if he had let it.”
Of course, Kendrick was a younger kid and alluded to the fact that he posted a 14.81 ERA in September, which ultimately meant that he was left off of the team's playoff roster in 2008 as they ended up wining the World Series.
Rather ironically, Amaro is now his first base coach in Boston, where he's been a Spring Training star. The two apparently discussed the issue at length last month:
Amaro apologized for his role in the ruse. “One of the first days in camp, we sat down, and he said, ‘That was messed up, I apologize,’ ” said Kendrick. “It was the first time he ever said anything to me about it. Nothing as a GM. Maybe he has a different perspective on it as a coach now.”
That Kendrick needed to have that conversation with Amaro — and he also mentioned in the article that it factored into him eventually firing his agent — suggests that he took the situation more seriously than everyone involved.
Myers took to Twitter to suggest that nearly a decade later, Kendrick would be best to just own the prank:
https://t.co/62dn7rCpbI Stop whining Kyle it made u famous for the greatest prank of all time! Own it!
— Brett Myers Music 🎤 (@BackWoodRebel39) March 27, 2017
To be fair, Kendrick perhaps didn't get pranked as badly as he thinks he did. In 1995, the then Reading Phillies went as far as hiring a Japanese actor and allowing pitcher Wayne Gomes to call his mother and start packing his locker before they let him know it was just a joke:
