Even after an unusually wonderful 2018 night at Citi Field produced some questions…and some agita for Mickey Callaway.
And an understanding of the rule in question shows it was mostly for nothing.
Jacob deGrom wrapped up his sublime, Cy Young season with eight innings of shutout ball against the Braves on Wednesday night, lifting his (meaningless) won-loss record to 10-9 as the Mets prevailed, 3-0. When Seth Lugo came out for the ninth inning, the few fans on site booed. Surely they had to be upset that deGrom didn’t receive the opportunity to go the distance.
Lifting deGrom, who threw 110 pitches to get through his eight innings, was a no-brainer. Why push your luck on his brilliant and, most importantly, healthy season?
However, in the postgame news conference, Callaway was asked whether he considered sending deGrom out to the mound to warm up and then immediately lift him for Lugo, thereby letting deGrom get a nice ovation as he walked from the mound back to the Mets’ dugout. And that’s when things got a little weird.
“No, not in that close of a game,” Callaway said. “It went through my mind if we’d been up more, maybe, but my goal was to get the win, especially in these circumstances tonight.”
Huh? What would showing deGrom a little love have to do with winning the game? When Callaway’s confounding quote hit Twitter, Mets fans reacted predictably.
Callaway’s best answer would have been, “That’s not allowed.” Because it isn’t.
Official Baseball Rule 5.10 (i) reads, “If a pitcher who is already in the game crosses the foul line on his way to take his place on the pitcher’s plate to start an inning, he shall pitch to the first batter until such batter is put out or reaches first base, unless the batter is substituted for, or the pitcher sustains an injury or illness which, in the judgment of the umpire-in-chief, incapacitates him from pitching.”
So, the question was misguided. Yet Callaway still raised eyebrows with his response. I asked him about it on Thursday.
“I kind of answered it as I didn’t want there to be any distraction for Lugo going out and having to close out a game because he hasn’t obviously closed out many games,” explained Callaway, who admitted to being unsure about the rule in question. “…We had rain imminent. That’s kind of how I answered that.”
OK, there’s some logic to that. Through this confusion, we firmed up our knowledge on a rule that we’ll now be unlikely to forget. And Callaway showed that, even as he has solidified his standing with the Mets’ strong second half, he can still improve his news-conference skills.
— This week’s Pop Quiz question came from John Collins of Manhattan: The 2014 documentary “The Battered Bastards of Baseball” tells the tale of the independent Portland Mavericks, who employed a well-known actor to play for them. Name the player.
— This past week, I attended a luncheon in Manhattan, hosted by New York Sports Tours, which commemorated the 40th anniversary of Ludtke vs. Kuhn, the landmark federal case that cleared the way for women journalists to get equal access to professional athletes in their clubhouses.
It was great to meet Melissa Ludtke and learn more about her courageous battle as well as the support she received from her employers at Sports Illustrated and contemporaries like Henry Hecht, who wrote for The Post at the time.
Furthermore, I gained additional intellectual ammunition to allow illegal performance-enhancing drug users into the Baseball Hall of Fame. For whatever damage these guys did to the game’s integrity — and I’ll continue to contend that damage is minimal — how could accomplished players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens be kept out while Bowie Kuhn, the commissioner who went to court to ban female journalists from the clubhouse, enjoy Cooperstown immortality? His actions didn’t damage the game more?
The more you learn about the game’s history, the sillier it becomes that the illegal PED guys are treated so harshly.
— Your Pop Quiz answer is Kurt Russell. If you have a tidbit that connects baseball and popular culture, please send it to me at kdavidoff@nypost.com.