The Game

I was out for dinner and didn’t get home until the top of the 3rd. The first two things I saw were an error by Matt Olson and a homer by Juan Soto off Grant Holmes. At least that only tied up the game, but I’m beginning to doubt my prowess as a bringer of positive results. I am reliably informed that I missed a Mauricio Dubón walk followed by a two-run homer by Michael Harris II off Christian Scott.

Now that you’re all caught up on my life, let me catch you up on the Mets. I hear a number of you (I will name no names — we all know who you are) complaining about their disappointment with the first place Atlanta Braves. Now picture yourself as a Mets fan. Seriously. I can wait for the proper mindset to come over you. The last place Mets trail the Braves by 15 games, and they do so with a payroll 42% higher than the Braves payroll, a payroll only a couple of Dodger Dogs short of the biggest payroll in the sport. They pay more for their 40 men than any NFL team pays for their 51 by a fair margin. They pay two managers: Carlos Mendoza, who they fired, and Andy Green, who has no interest in keeping the job after this season ends. They sent Pete Alonso packing (he has a 125 OPS+ this season with 19 homers for the Orioles) without any plan to have anyone play first base who had ever seen it from a defensive position. (How hard could it be?). They are, not to put too fine a gloss on it, the Mets. While they have some excellent players and some real promise in others, what they lead the league in, as they do in so many years, is fan dissension. I live in the NY Metro area, and sports radio is dominated by WFAN. It has been three years since I heard a fan call in to say something positive about the Mets. All this is to say that Braves naysayers can take a beat for a little moment of gratitude.

Ozzie Albies broke the tie with a homer, and then Matt Olson hit a homer to create the first run A.J. Minter has yielded all year. What Brave holds the record for home runs off a former Brave teammate? I’m glad you asked. See below.

Olson hit his second homer of the night off Kodai Senga, who is being paid $15 million per year to pitch long relief.

Iggy got the first two outs before hitting a rough patch: three straight singles gave the Mets a run and some hope, but this is a season in which hope and Mets don’t belong in the same sentence. Francisco Lindor, representing the go-ahead run, grounded out to end the game, 5-3.

Hitting Homers Off Former Atlanta Braves

Four Braves players have hit five homers off former Braves pitchers: Chipper hit 5 off Jason Schmidt, but Schmidt only played 22 games for the Braves at the beginning of a long career, though he and Chipper were teammates. Bob Horner hit 5 homers off Dick Ruthven, though they missed being teammates by a day. But two different players hit 5 home runs off Jason Marquis after his time in Atlanta: Chipper and Andruw, and he was teammates with both of them.

How To Enjoy Your 4th of July: A Modest Suggestion

Tomorrow’s game will be broadcast on Fox at 8 PM. I assume all of you not out watching fireworks somewhere will be tuned in, exhausted from your patriotic duties, whatever they are. This game will be, as I’m sure nobody needs to tell you (my editor, E.B. White, is complaining about rhetorical frippery at this point) the 41st anniversary of the 1985 game between these exact two teams in a stadium about 12 miles away, reachable in a mere 7 hours and 18 minutes on I-75, which coincidentally is exactly as long as the festivities of July 4, 1985.1

Because the game is on Fox, you can be sure that this little piece of history will be mentioned 46 times, which coincidentally is the exact number of hits in the 1985 game. With that in mind, and with all due caution for all of my readers’ mental and physical state, I propose a drinking game. Please scale the quantities up or down freely based on your own endurance and whatever you did earlier in the day. We need you all for the stretch run.

  • For every mention of the game, one tiny sip. Frankly, this is really scary advice, even if no alcohol is involved at all. Even water in these expected quantities can be dangerous.
  • One drink for every live or taped discussion with someone who was there. This does not include archival film. Three drinks if one of them is a joint interview with Dale Murphy and Lenny Dykstra.
  • One drink for every invocation of the late John Sterling, who not only broadcast all 19 innings, but whose 47th birthday concluded around the 6th inning. (Maximum of two. They could go crazy here.)
  • One drink for every time they say the word “Camp.” (Really… don’t do this.)
  • Two drinks if they find the idiot who thought that sunk costs was a good rationale for fireworks at 4 am.
  • Three drinks if they compare the “free” fireworks for Summerhill residents in 1985 with the $800 charged for one night by the Omni Hotel with fireworks listed as an “amenity.”
  • 1/2 drink for every mention of Ron Darling. (He’ll be in Atlanta, obviously, but he may not be at the game since the Mets announcers will have the night off as well.) 12 drinks if the Mets re-sign him and he pitches the last out in this game as well.
  • One shot if they play Katy Perry’s Firework
  • Two drinks if they have Katy Perry sing an In Memoriam tribute to the players in that game who are no longer with us. (An entire bottle of bourbon if she sings Firework rather than Hallelujah.)
  • One drink for every inning past the 11th. If it reaches the 20th inning, buy a distillery and consume the contents.

I solicit additional suggestions in the comments. This is America. Prove your creativity.

  1. The game was supposed to begin at 7:35 but didn’t actually start until 9:04. The fireworks show ended at 4:22 am. If you don’t count the fireworks show as part of the game time there’s something wrong with you. ↩︎