San Francisco Giants

Giants' new closer shares a hilarious story about Hunter Pence and hot yoga

Published Jan. 4, 2017 12:51 p.m. ET

Chris Bahr

The San Francisco Giants addressed their biggest offseason need by signing free-agent closer Mark Melancon. And it appears the stopper is going to fit right in with his new teammates – specifically, right fielder Hunter Pence.

Melancon introduced himself to his new fans base in a piece for The Players’ Tribune, but no introduction was needed with Pence. The two were teammates on the Astros from 2010-11, during which time Melancon introduced Pence to hot yoga (90 minutes at 105 degrees). And there were some unexpected results. From Melancon:

After about five or 10 minutes, I take a peek over at Hunter, and he looks like he’s about to die. He’s drenched in sweat and just … struggling. But he gives me this look like, It’s cool. Everything’s O.K. It’s just yoga.

Ultimately he made it through. But by the end of the session, he looked like a sack of potatoes. As he stumbled out of the room, I asked him if he was all right.

Hunter Pence

Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Pence again played it cool, but perhaps he should have taken a couple minutes to collect himself before heading home. A day later, Pence relayed the details of his post-workout fender bender:

“Mark, that was the craziest workout ever,” he says. “I could barely stand up after that. And get this, on my way home I pulled into a parking lot and I was so out of it that I backed my car into the front bumper of another car. Dude, the bumper actually fell off! Like the whole way off. I’ve never done that before. I couldn’t believe it. Hot yoga is crazy, man. It cost some poor guy his bumper!”