Reds’ Brandon Phillips (@DatDudeBP) featured in GQ May Issue

It would only go figure with a personality like the Cincinnati Reds’ own Brandon Phillips to pull a prank on a fellow teammate (unnamed, to protect the “innocent”) simply by saying: “I put purple Kool-Aid in his shoe.”

In the newest issue of GQ magazine (May 2013 edition, hitting newsstands Tuesday, April 23rd), a series of current MLB players are featured in a photo shoot along with short Q&A segments with each of the featured players.  Besides Phillips, Buster Posey, Barry Zito, Chase Headley, Jake Peavy, and Andre Ethier are also in the issue for MLB style.

[featured excerpts follow … you can see the entire online Q&A here and the full. feature in the print edition of the magazine:]

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“Though he plays for a small-market team, Brandon Phillips has managed to accumulate almost a million Twitter followers, the second most of anyone in baseball. He is indisputably the Major League leader in T.P.D.’s (Tweets Per Day), opining on everything from fried Oreos to Go-Karting to teammates’ unstylish shoes. A superb defensive player—he was a human highlight reel in this spring’s World Baseball Classic—Phillips has won three Gold Gloves in the past five years. When he didn’t win one in 2012 he said, ‘I thought I was being punked.'”

Brandon Phillips (Photo credit: Cass Bird / GQ)

>On last year’s National League Division Series:
“I’m still not over it. I’m still not over it. I’m still not over it, man.” “… Or for that matter myself: I wish I would have had a better at-bat against Romo to keep the inning going [in the ninth inning of Game 5, when Phillips popped out to foul territory].”

>On being on a small-market team yet a high Twitter following:
“I like to make people’s day and that’s what I did. I take pictures, interact with fans, go to kids’ games. I did giveaways to build my fan base up. I just say real quotes. I tell people how I think. I just do normal things that professional athletes should really do.”

>On “plate patience”:
“I understand what people are saying about my plate discipline; I’ll agree with that. I love to swing the bat. I love to hit. I’m the type of guy that wants to get the runners in. I would rather have a guy do that, actually, than walk all the time and not swing the bat.”

> On “greatest clubhouse prank”:
“One of my teammates was getting on my nerves so I put purple Kool-Aid in his shoe … when he took his shoes off and socks off his feet were purple. He ran into the clubhouse and the training room like, “Oh, my God! I don’t know what’s going on with my feet!” It was pretty funny, he really thought that he had a disease or something, like he was breaking out. It was pretty bad. He was so embarrassed…”
> On WBC teammate Shane Victorino‘s shoes:

"@DatDudeBP: #RealTalk: Can someone PLEASE send my teammate @ShaneVictorino some DAMN shoes for the #WBC bc those shoes he had on today was#NoBueno."

“We got there and everybody had USA colors, national colors. Shane, he has no shoes, he has nothing. The only person who had his shoe size was the clubhouse guy. So we all went out for a stretch, just chilling, and the next thing you know Shane came out with the most raggedy, ugliest shoes ever. He’s a big leaguer and he came out with the ugliest shoes ever. We was like, “Wow, are you serious?” You had to see these shoes. They looked like the person who was wearing them had corns and bunions on their toes. Everybody was getting on his shoes the whole day, and so I decided to Tweet about it. He retweeted it and next thing you know Nike sent him some shoes.”

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Continue the conversation with me on Twitter @JDRentz