Cardboard cutout of dog grabs a home run ball

A cardboard cutout of a dog at Citi Field got her paws on a home run ball Saturday.

Easiest game of fetch Willow Mcneil will ever play, writes Jake Seiner of The Associated Press.

Atlanta’s Adam Duvall drilled a solo shot to right field that hit a cardboard likeness of the 1-year-old pup belonging to Mets All-star Jeff

Mcneil.

“Right off the pooch!” exclaimed New York broadcaster Gary Cohen.

Willow was one of three pretend dogs propped up in the first row behind the rightfield wall for New York’s second game of this 60-game season shortened by the coronavirus pandemic.

With spectators locked out of Citi Field, Mets fans have purchased the right to have cardboard likenesses of themselves put in the seats.

Right fielder Michael Conforto bought one for each of his dogs, Griffey and Kali, but didn’t like that they were set up down the third-base line for Friday’s season opener. He pulled them out of the stands during batting practice and had them relocated to right field so they could sit behind him while he played defense. Willow’s likeness went along to keep them company. Mcneil first met Willow, believed to be Alaskan malamute, great Pyrenees and shepherd mix, a year ago today during a pregame adoption event at Citi Field. His wife, Tatiana, was hesitant to let Mcneil bring home the puppy, but she caved when Mcneil hit a three-run homer later that night. A stadium employee walked into the pup section after the inning and retrieved the ball, which was sitting in the seat propping up Willow’s likeness.

Trivia question

Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan had 5,714 strikeouts, 839 more than second-place Randy Johnson. How many consecutive years did Ryan strike out at least 100 batters?

Expensive view

While some fans in San Diego can go out on their downtown balcony and watch the Padres from afar, Cubs fans are shelling out the big bucks for one-time views.

Tickets to the 16 rooftops along Waveland and Sheffield avenues come at a hefty price — about $300 to $440 compared with the usual $150. They can seat about 200 to 250, but a 20 percent capacity limit because of the coronavirus has them selling 40 to 50 per game.

The tickets are going fast with about 90 percent taken, according to the Cubs.

They said it

From Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times: “Receiver Antonio Brown has announced he’s retiring, unretiring, retiring, unretiring, retiring and now says he wants to play again. Don’t know if he’s lost a step off his square-out or go routes, but his comeback pattern is in midseason form.”

From comedy writer Brad Dickson: “You know the world is messed up when Mariano Rivera is attending the White House briefing and Dr. Anthony Fauci is warming up to take the mound at a major league stadium.”

From Alex Brewsaugh, via Facebook, after Dr. Fauci’s first pitch Thursday night at the Yankees-nationals game was wildly off target: “Angel Hernandez had it as a strike!”

Trivia answer

Ryan struck out his 100th batter on this date in 1992, giving him a record 23 consecutive seasons hitting the century mark.