Whether unfairly or not, professional athletes are rarely considered intellectual powerhouses. After all, we like them because they excel at their chosen sport, not for their brains. One MLB player reminded us of exactly this when he recently appeared on a podcast and argued that the moon isn’t real.


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Miami Marlins outfielder Nick Gordon made an appearance on the Miami Mic’d Up podcast when he was asked for the “wildest take” that he wholeheartedly believes in. Barely giving host Jeremy Taché a chance to finish his question, Gordon jumped in with, “The moon ain’t real,” before adding, “I don’t have time to explain all of that.”



Undeterred, Taché asked Gordon for an explanation anyway, and he launched into one about the Earth, the moon and gravitational pulls, reasoning that the moon is way too close.


What does that mean, though? Too close for what? Does Gordon think the moon is going to crash into the Earth? Is it so close because someone put it up there as part of an elaborate hoax? What is this argument?


Gordon then tried a different tack, which involved telling people to look up at night and notice that they can’t see the moon sometimes, arguing that you have to either be able to see the sun or the moon at any given moment. Taché conceded that he didn’t have enough of a science background to properly refute Gordon’s points, which is a shame — I’d love to see an astronomer challenge Gordon with facts or maybe just give him a brief science lesson.


Because while he might be able to hit Major League pitching, he certainly whiffs at science.