Chris Christie was heavily booed and heckled by fans at Citi Field on Tuesday night after catching a foul ball during the New York Mets‘ 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The 54-year-old New Jersey governor — who was sitting behind the Mets dugout — used his left hand to snag a foul hit from Cardinals rookie Paul DeJong in the top of the third inning, and didn’t even need to leave his seat to make the catch. Christie played catcher for his high school team in the 1980s.
However, the Republican governor and former 2016 presidential candidate received several high-fives and eventually gave the ball to a young child.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!
A week of sports news in your in-box.
We find the sports news you need to know, so you don't have to.
Even the announcers couldn’t help but poke fun at Christie, who has recently made headlines for several different reasons.
“Nice to see him get from the beach here to the ballpark,” Fox Sports’ Dan McLaughlin said as his co-commentator laughed.
McLaughlin was referring to a recent controversy Christie found himself in: the governor and his family were photographed relaxing at Island Beach State Park over the July 4 holiday weekend, the same weekend Christie shut down access to the beach for the rest of the public.
Baseball fans also quickly jumped on Twitter to make jokes about another of the governor’s scandals: Christie’s aides’ intentional closing of several lanes of the George Washington Bridge in September 2013. This incident created severe traffic jams in the Fort Lee area of New Jersey and resulted in investigations and indictments of several members of Christie’s staff. Christie and his aides allegedly shut down the lanes as a way to retaliate against Fort Lee’s Democratic Mayor Mark Sokolich and other who did not support Christie’s re-election bid for governor.
Christie cites the so-called “Bridge-gate” controversy as one of the primary reasons for which he lost the 2016 Republican nomination for President. The governor eventually supported the nominee, President Donald Trump after dropping out of the race.
Christie also recently revealed he hopes to pursue a career as a sports radio host, and has emerged as one of the top candidates to replace longtime WFAN radio host Mike Francesca. The Republican’s second term as governor of New Jersey ends in January.
The Mets (41-50, 4th in National League East) next host the Cardinals again on Wednesday at 7:08pm for the second game of a three-game series.
To add insult to injury, Sean McVay announced on Monday that the Los Angeles Rams…
The Panthers named Andy Dalton as their new starting quarterback earlier this week, relieving 2023…
Once known as the worst clutch quarterback in the NFL, Atlanta Falcons QB Kirk Cousins…
On Tuesday, the Miami Dolphins placed quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on injured reserve with a concussion.…
The Chicago Bears learned the hard way last week that not all wins are pretty.…
Quarterback Daniel Jones has had to field multiple questions about negative Giants fans last week.…