Monday’s Hot Clicks: Giancarlo Stanton Gets Booed Again
Yankee Fans Are Brutal
Welcome to New York, Giancarlo Stanton.
For the second time in a six-game homestand, Stanton struck out five times on Sunday, going 0-for-7. He’s the only player in the live ball era to have two five-strikeout, 0-fer games in a single season–and there are still 152 games to play! Stanton was booed lustily by the crowd in New York—first after his fourth strikeout of the day in the bottom of the eighth and then again when his fifth K ended the game in the 12th.
I said this when Stanton was booed for the first time in the home opener: If there are any fans who are going to give him the Bronx cheer, it’ll be the ones hardcore enough to sit in miserable April weather to see the game. If Stanton wants the boos to stop, he can either turn some of those strikeouts into homers or just wait for the Wall Street guys to show up when weather gets better.
That’s Not What You Want
Easily what I enjoyed most about the Masters were the moments when the best players in the world reminded me of myself. Bubba Watson putted the ball straight into the bunker, Tiger Woods ended up, appropriately, lost in the woods and Sergio Garcia put an unfathomable five straight shots in the water. It’ll make me feel a lot better when I play my first round of the season.
Hello
If you somehow missed Andy’s previous announcements, I’m the new Hot Clicks guy. I’m sad that Andy had to leave, but I’m glad he’s finally seeking professional help for his continued obsession with Deflategate. You may remember me as an occasional fill-in for Andy here or as one of the regular writers of the dearly departed P.M. Hot Clicks. (I am not, as one angry reader emailed Andy, the guy who included a link to a Tumblr blog about my co-worker’s meetings in a P.M. Clicks nearly two years ago. That was Matt Dollinger, but props for remembering that very specific detail and still being upset about it.)
But fear not, Hot Clicks will still be your daily one-stop shop for everything trending online. I’ll be putting my own spin on it, of course—starting with replacing all Boston bias with a heavy New York bias—but it’ll still be Hot Clicks.
To use an analogy I think Andy would like, I want to be the Tom Brady to his Drew Bledsoe—Hot Clicks was really good when Andy was in charge, but I think there’s room to be even better.
Bits & Pieces
Our Justin Barrasso was at the Superdome for WrestleMania and wrote a really good recap. ... I love this gallery of childhood photos of WWE wrestlers. ... This is a really touching story about one of the victims of the hockey team bus crash over the weekend. ... Scientists have now created a device that transcribes your thoughts, which isn’t scary at all. ... Speaking of scary, Angels two-way star Shohei Ohtani looks just as dominant as advertised. ... And I’ve heard nothing but good things about scary movie A Quiet Place, which was the top movie at the box office this weekend.
44 Years Ago Yesterday, History for No. 44
Hank Aaron’s 715th home run is pretty high up on my list of favorite sports highlights. There are so many little things about the video that make it great, like the two guys chasing him around the bases or the fact that a 22-year-old Craig Sager makes a cameo appearance.
But there’s one thing I didn’t notice about the highlight until I read Ron Fimrite’s Sports Illustrated story on the homer yesterday. Look at Dodgers leftfielder Bill Buckner climb the fence as the ball sails over it. Buckner didn’t think he could rob the homer—he just wanted the ball.
Aaron's whip of a bat lashed out at it and snapped it in a high arc toward the 385-foot sign in left-centerfield. Dodgers centerfielder Jimmy Wynn and leftfielder Bill Buckner gave futile chase, Buckner going all the way to the six-foot fence for it. But the ball dropped over the fence in the midst of a clutch of Braves' relief pitchers who scrambled out of the bullpen in pursuit. Buckner started to go over the fence after the ball himself, but gave up after he realized he was outnumbered. It was finally retrieved by reliever Tom House, who even as Aaron triumphantly rounded the bases ran hysterically toward home plate holding the ball aloft. It was, after all, one more ball than Babe Ruth ever hit over a fence, and House is a man with a sense of history.
Writing Non-Fiction Is Easier
This Got Out of Control Quickly
The benches cleared in St. Louis yesterday after Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said something Yadier Molina didn’t like. I wonder what it could have been.
Oh.
A good song
Thanks for reading. I promise they won’t always be this long.
Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or ping me on Twitter. Click here for previous editions of Hot Clicks. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.
