Ben McDonald unwittingly mirrored a home run call from 34 years ago: ‘That’s really weird’

Aliens had been on Ben McDonald’s mind for days. It all started with the ancient pyramids, and it culminated with a home run call about unidentified flying objects.

After Orioles infielder Coby Mayo launched a 439-foot home run in Tuesday’s loss against the Kansas City Royals, an earlier conversation led to a funny expression from McDonald, a former major leaguer in Baltimore who now does commentary for Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.

“They say about 30% of people believe in UFOs,” McDonald quipped. “I think that number just went up after that.”

At that time, McDonald had no idea just how that comment mirrored another commentator’s expression from three decades earlier — and in response to a home run from Mickey Tettleton against McDonald himself.

On April 20, 1992, Tettleton hit the first home run to reach Eutaw Street at Camden Yards. With McDonald on the mound, commentator John Lowenstein uttered this: “Over 50% of all Americans believe in UFOs, and that figure jumped a little bit after that blast.”

Here’s the thing, though.

McDonald had never even heard that call before. He wasn’t one to listen to commentary of games he played, and he still doesn’t listen back to the games he calls now because he doesn’t want to get in his head.

So how did this happen? How did McDonald mirror Lowenstein 34 years later?

A baseball road trip can lead to a lot of wide-ranging conversations, and a few days earlier, with the team in Cleveland, McDonald told play-by-play commentator Kevin Brown the ancient Egyptian pyramids are a bucket list destination.

“I’m convinced those people were aliens,” McDonald said. “There’s no way those people did the things they did way back thousands of years ago, the things they built. So I was on ChatGPT, AI, asking about pyramids and UFOs and all that kind of stuff, and that’s where I came across the 30% thing. I was just wondering how many people actually believe in aliens and UFOs and all that stuff.”

Apparently, the subject was still in the back of McDonald’s mind, and when he saw that Mayo blast in Kansas City, it popped out.

“You’ve probably heard me say, ‘71% of the Earth is covered in water. Sometimes it feels like Jorge Mateo covers the rest,’ or whatever,” McDonald said. “I’ve used that one a few times, too. And I don’t even know where that one came from, either. … We’re always trying to be a little bit different and say something new, because baseball is such a repetitive game.”

McDonald said some Orioles fans have told him he reminds them of Lowenstein because of the “weird things” they say or their enthusiasm for watching baseball. McDonald takes that as high praise.

“People tell me he was an awesome analyst, so to be put in the same sentence with him is an honor,” McDonald said.

McDonald found it mildly interesting when a post on X alerted him to the similarities in the two calls three decades apart, but he found it downright baffling when a follow-up from another fan pointed out McDonald was the pitcher during Lowenstein’s call.

What’re the chances of that?

The only difference, really, is what percentage McDonald said compared to Lowenstein. Perhaps alien belief has decreased over the years. Or maybe McDonald just has more up-to-date information at his fingertips.

“He didn’t have AI or Google back then, back in ’92,” McDonald said. “That’s funny, man. That’s really weird.”