On the anniversary of the start of baseball’s greatest hitting feat, a weird batting maneuver….

Today is 70 years and 366 days since Joe DiMaggio’s mind-bending 56-game hitting streak began: with a meager (though RBI) single against the Chicago White Sox. Right Off the Bat celebrated the seventieth anniversary with a podcast a year ago. For those with a morbid curiosity, click here.

Something odd happened on the actual anniversary last night, at Citi Field, in Flushing. Ryan Braun, about whom I (Evander) have also opined in this blog, was plunked. In a preemptive move that I do not ever recall having seen, Mets manager Terry Collins, fearing retaliation, removed his sore-pinkie, .400-hitting third baseman, David Wright—lest the Milwaukee brain-trust retaliate with a little chin music of their own.

The game had got out of hand just in terms of the score. But does anyone remember seeing such a late-inning benching before?