The Boston Red Sox arrived in Minnesota early on Monday morning to begin their series with the Twins later that day. They were a little shaken up — literally.
The Red Sox had a turbulent flight to the Twin Cities due to severe weather in the Midwest. Boston's Sunday evening charter made a brief pit stop in Detroit before it took off for Minnesota, into the nasty weather again. They didn't land until 1 a.m. Eastern time, and some of the players were battered by motion sickness. According to Chris Cotillo of MassLive, Garrett Whitlock received IV fluids before the game, and still was not ready to pitch on Monday.
It didn't take long for the Red Sox to turn their "very rough flight," as manager Alex Cora called it, into a joke. In the top of the third inning in Tuesday's game, Ceddanne Rafaela laced a triple to center field. When he was safe at third base, he stretched his arms out to his sides, mimicking plane wings. Jarren Duran did the same as he rounded the bases after his fifth-inning homer.
Boston didn't talk about introducing the new celebration before the game. Trevor Story was surprised to see the plane motion on the base paths during Tuesday night's contest.
“It popped up mid-game. That was the first time I saw or heard about it,” Story said, per Cotillo. “I thought it was amazing. Embracing all the adversity, for sure."
Red Sox introduce plane hit celebration after nightmare flight to Minnesota on Sunday night
Speedy Ceddanne! pic.twitter.com/SN6CHyDG4y
— Red Sox (@RedSox) July 30, 2025
The Red Sox have a history of unlikely celebrations this season. Cora punched the plastic cover off the Red Sox's dugout bullpen phone after Walker Buehler's May 20 ejection, and Boston immediately gave it new life. Tanner Houck raised the cover over his head in celebration, and Rob Refsnyder held it in the handshake line after a Carlos Narváez homer.
The bullpen phone cover only lasted one game in the Sox's dugout, but the plane celebration could endure. Thankfully, Whitlock and the other motion-sick players seem to have recovered quickly, so Boston can laugh about its nightmare flight.