Sports

Evan Longoria's Viral Video Filmed at McKechnie Field

The Tampa Bay Rays star's unbelievable 'catch' in Bradenton becomes a YouTube hit.

UPDATE (May 25): The St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald's PolitiFact Florida tried to get to the bottom of the "catch" mystery today on its Truth-O-Meter.

You may have seen the video by now — Tampa Bay Rays star Evan Longoria making a too-good-to-be-true, bare-handed catch to save a reporter from getting clocked in the head.

What you may or may not have noticed is the viral video, which was actually part of a Gillette Fusion commercial shoot, was filmed at Bradenton's , spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Find out what's happening in Bradentonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Longoria spent several hours in Bradenton one night in the middle of spring training filming a Gillette commercial with ESPN's Kenny Mayne, then shot the viral video in just a few minutes, said Trevor Gooby, the Pirates' director of Florida operations. Pirates employees had no idea what the commercial would be like.

"I was watching 'Good Morning America' and it came on, and I went 'Oh, my gosh, that's McKechnie Field," Gooby said. "How cool is that?' "

Find out what's happening in Bradentonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

So, is the sensational catch real, or did it have some CGI enhancement?

"That's how it happened," Longoria told the Tampa Tribune. "Guys were hitting and it just happened."

Sure it did.

If you look closely you'll see "Gillette" signs across the roof's facade — those were computer graphics, Gooby said.

Still, Gooby said it's pretty amazing so many people got a view of the famed Bradenton ballpark. The video had already been viewed more than 2.8 million times on YouTube as of Friday afternoon.


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