Friday’s Hot Clicks: LSU Pitcher Hits Clutch Double After Lying to Coach About Hitting ‘Bombs’ in HS
Major heuvos
LSU pitcher Todd Peterson is my new favorite baseball player.
Peterson didn’t have a college hit when he stepped to the plate in the 12th inning of yesterday’s SEC tournament elimination game against South Carolina, but he was dealing on the mound and coach Paul Mainieri didn’t want to take him out. So the coach told him to just stand at the plate with the bat on his shoulder. Peterson, however, convinced Mainieri to let him take a hack, because he used to hit “bombs” in high school.
Mainieri’s trust paid off when Peterson stroked a double down the leftfield line to push the Tigers’ lead to three runs.
But it was all based on a lie. After the game, Peterson came clean and admitted he didn’t actually hit “bombs” as a high school. In fact, he didn’t hit at all—not in a game, at least.
I love Mainieri’s reaction upon learning Peterson duped him into being allowed to hit, but I shudder to think how he would have responded if the game turned out differently.
Draymond keeps getting embarrassed
What is up with Draymond Green? The Warriors’ old secret weapon has looked like trash in these last two games. On Wednesday, James Harden dunked all over him and then he got rejected by the rim on a dunk attempt. Last night was no better. First, Harden breezed right by him for another dunk, then he got rejected in a big way by Clint Capela.
Green did hit a clutch three with 1:15 to play, but the worst part of his night was when he cost the Warriors the game with two awful errors. Draymond collected the rebound after a missed free throw in the final seconds but instead of calling a timeout—which would have allowed Golden State to advance the ball to midcourt for a potential game-tying possession—he passed to Kevin Durant, who called the TO.
The Warriors were forced to go the length of the court and Green couldn’t handle Stephen Curry’s pass.
Woof.
Bits & Pieces
An epileptic Auburn walk-on football player was ruled ineligible because he uses prescription cannabis oil to treat his disease. ... On the same day the Han Solo movie came out, we learned there’s a movie all about Boba Fett in the works. ... LiAngelo Ball says he’s drawn interest from NBA teams (to play basketball?). ... A family’s Amazon Echo secretly recorded their conversation and sent it to someone else. ... A guy in Toronto saw someone trying to steal his bike, so he went outside and beat him so badly the alleged thief is in the hospital.
Oh wow, that seems serious
Or maybe not
It looks so easy...
Turn ahead the clock
The Mariners revealed their uniforms for June 30’s revival of Turn Ahead the Clock Night and the Royals just unveiled theirs.
Prayers up for CP3
I really, really hope the hamstring injury Chris Paul suffered at the end of last night’s game isn’t serious, because he was really at the top of his game before went down. Hitting Steph Curry with his trademark shimmy was a savage move, although Steph was cool with it.
So there’s a third Vlad Guerrero?
Our Jon Tayler profiled Vlad Guerrero Jr., the 19-year-old son of the Hall of Famer who is currently demolishing the competition at Double A, but little did I know Vlad has another son—Vlad Miguel—who looks like a decent hitter himself.
Shohei Ohtani can do it all
He hits, he pitches, he’s trilingual.
Sometimes you have to be lucky to be good
A good song
Happy first long weekend of the summer. I’ll be back as usual on Monday.
Hot Clicks is everything you need to know in the world of sports and pop culture, ready for you to read right when you get to your desk in the morning. 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.
