Cleveland Guardians

All Mike Napoli wanted to do was go to Vegas after winning the pennant

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:41 p.m. ET

Pete Blackburn

"Party At Napoli's" has become somewhat of a rallying cry for this year's Cleveland Indians, but all Napoli wanted to do was bring the party to Las Vegas after clinching the pennant on Wednesday.

By beating the Blue Jays in Game 5 of the ALCS in Toronto, the Indians punched their ticket to the World Series to face either the Cubs or the Dodgers. As is tradition in baseball, that meant a clubhouse party.

During the raucous booze-soaked celebration in the visitors' locker room, Napoli apparently tried to rally the troops and convince them that they should take a plane to Vegas for the after-party. He was not successful.

Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan was nearby when this glorious exchange took place:

Indians president Chris Antonetti stood toward the front of the clubhouse, shivering from the booze bath he’d taken, when first baseman Mike Napoli screamed to no one and everyone.

“Let’s take a plane to Vegas!” Napoli said.

“That’s the next one,” Antonetti said.

“Seghi,” Napoli said, calling for Indians traveling secretary Mike Seghi. “[Expletive] this! Let’s go to Vegas!”

“Hey!” Antonetti said. “That’s the next one. We already talked about this. We’re stopping on our way back after we win.”

“Awwwww,” Napoli said. “You’re getting me excited.”

Pretty smart of Antonetti to force Napoli to wait for a possible World Series title celebration before allowing him to take Vegas by storm. As we saw during the Red Sox celebration in 2013, Napoli loves himself a championship party and he goes hard. Keeping him away from Vegas not only (somewhat) saves his liver, but also provides even more motivation for the Indians slugger. You know he's going to be playing for that Vegas trip as much as he's playing for that ring from here on out.