If you think about it, stretching really is just like being a mime. You don’t talk, you move in exaggerated ways, and you observe those around you to know exactly how to move.
So, then, it’s perfectly logical to bring in an actual mime to lead the morning stretch for your baseball team.
Well, it’s perfectly logical if you’re Joe Maddon and your team is the Chicago Cubs, anyway:
Maddon was well known in his days with the Tampa Bay Rays to keep things lively in the clubhouse, and he’s carried the tradition over to the Cubs, where he’s introduced, at various times, a troupe of zoo animals, a clown, a magician, an electric guitarist, a karaoke machine, a disco ball, and much more … all in barely a year’s time. So why not a mime?
And if it works, it works. Put that in your imaginary pipe and pantomime that you’re smoking it.