Thursday’s Hot Clicks: Another Kid Fought Gritty and Whacked Him With His Stick

Good thing that suit is padded.

Good thing that suit is padded

Flyers mascot Gritty is making his fair share of enemies. 

Back in November, not long after Gritty was introduced, a kid tried twice to fight the big orange mascot and got hauled off to the penalty box. That kid at least was a good sport and dropped his gloves. The same can’t be said for the kid who attacked Gritty last night. He went after him with his goalie stick and got a few good whacks in before Gritty was able to confiscate it. 

While the November troublemaker got a simple five-minute penalty for fighting and served his time in the penalty box, this latest attacker was handed a game-misconduct and carried right off the ice back to the locker room. 

It’s fitting that this happened on the same day we learned that Eli Manning’s least-favorite road venue at which to play is Philadelphia. That city is something else. 

It’s baseball season

Ignoring that weird soft launch in Tokyo, the MLB season gets underway for real across the country with all 30 teams in action. Our season preview has everything you need to know as play starts, with predictions and scouting reports on every team. I might as well put my predictions on the record here:

World Series: Yankees over Brewers
AL MVP: Mookie Betts
NL MVP: Juan Soto
AL Cy Young: Gerrit Cole
NL Cy Young: Noah Syndergaard
AL Rookie of the Year: Vlad Guerrero Jr.
NL Rookie of the Year: Pete Alonso

The best of SI

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Around the sports world

The majority owner of the AAF is threatening that the league could fold in a matter of days if it doesn’t get a partnership with the NFL. ... Some golfers in Georgia stumbled upon a truly enormous alligator. ... More people than you think are trying to see every minor league baseball stadium in America. ... Tanzania qualified for the African soccer championships for the first time in 39 years and the president rewarded the players by giving them all plots of land. 

Presented without comment

Devin Booker is the youngest player to ever score 50 in back-to-back games

How can you not love Luka?

Check out this absurd hand-eye coordination

Very clever, 35-year-old Joey Votto

The ’86 Mets were a total circus

Par save from a jungle

Geometry lesson from Auston Matthews

Just an unreal trick shot

This is part of Infiniti’s partnership with the NCAA and Coaches vs. Cancer. Infiniti donated $1 million to the American Cancer Society and the winners of the trick shot contest (these guys, obviously) won a trip to the Final Four in Minneapolis. 

Not sports

A naked man was found walking on the tarmac at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. ... 7-Eleven opened up a sit-down restaurant. ... HBO is airing a documentary about Game of Thrones after the series finale.

The Midwest cannot be trusted with bagels

That’s an atrocity but at least it sparked these hilarious responses:

This ice cream is made with animal fat and weed

Try not to cringe

The guy from Slipknot sings the SpongeBob theme

A good song

Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or follow me on Twitter for approximately one half-decent baseball joke per week. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. By popular request I’ve made a Spotify playlist of the music featured here. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.