Rojo Johnson

“The Round Rock Express have acquired Billy Ray “Rojo” Johnson... Johnson, who was born in East Texas but was raised in Venezuela, recently had his prison sentence commuted. He served time for running a smuggling ring that imported rare and illegal species of reptiles into the United States from South America during the mid-to-late 1990s.”

So ran a press release for the Round Rock Express, the Astros’ Triple-A affiliate, provoking some comment as to whether such a character should be with he team. Johnson made his debut Thursday, but was ejected after throwing one pitch behind the opposing batter. According to the MLB.com report, there was then “an argument with the umpire, an ejection, and [Johnson] sprayed beer on the batter, pulling it from the bag of cans he had brought to the mound.”

Of course, turns out Johnson was actually Will Farrell, promoting a charity golf event being held in Austin. And it certainly helped, as the Express pulled in more than 10,000, including over four thousand walk-up sales. Good thing he wasn’t pretending to be a hitter, or else the Astros would probably have called him up. Here’s video of the event: