ESPN continued to make an excellent case on Wednesday to mic up baseball players all the time with its Grapefruit League broadcast of the Mets and Cardinals.
This time, we got to hear exactly how Mets players are treating their teammate and former 2017 Houston Astros player J.D. Davis.
It was so good.
ESPN’s broadcast had the Mets’ Dominic Smith, Jeff McNeil and Davis all mic’d up for the game with earpieces — similarly to the delightful broadcast with Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo. At one point in the fourth inning, Davis was asked about using “cheat sheets” for shifts as an infielder who will play some outfield.
It set Smith up for an excellent burn.
Here's audio of Dominic Smith joking about former 2017 Astros player and now teammate J.D. Davis having plenty of "cheat sheets" pic.twitter.com/kr4yGFQzq5
— Michael Mayer (@mikemayerMMO) March 4, 2020
Smith said, jokingly:
“J.D. has a ton of cheat sheets. You know what I’m sayin …”
Davis was among the players who benefited from the cheating scandal en route to a 2017 World Series title — though data shows that he sparingly used the trash can-aided tactics compared to other Astros players like George Springer and Alex Bregman.
And I’m sure Davis is used to those lighthearted jabs by now.
Smith said earlier of Davis’ relationship with his Mets teammates in an interview with WFAN:
“It was all jokes from the very beginning because he was very honest when he came over here with us. We kind of had an idea of some of the things they were doing. We just made a light joke of it. Obviously it sucks for the game. It sucks for the people affected by it. It’s not good for the game at all, but it is what it is. It’s a new season here, and he’s a part of us. We welcome him with open arms, him and Jake (Marisnick, who also played for the Astros). We love those guys, and we hope they can help us win a World Series.”
So it was all in good fun.
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