IT’S A MADD MADD WORLD. . .

So now it’s going to be the Cleveland Guardians, named after the iconic Guardians of Traffic statue just outside their ballpark on the Hope Memorial Bridge. Easy enough to replace the “Ind” with “Guard” in front of “ians” on the front of their uniforms. With such a generic, harmless new name, perhaps the Cleveland franchise, which has been the Indians since 1 9 1 5 , can go another 1 0 0 years without having to change nicknames again. … Quite a couple of tumultuous two days last week for Yermin Mercedes, the early season White Sox sensation who was hitting .4 1 3 with five homers and 1 6 RBI in his first 2 2 games only to be demoted the Triple-A after a long slump in June. Wednesday Mercedes posted on Instagram he was stepping away from baseball — which immediately brought out the legions of Tony La Russa haters blaming the 7 6 -year-old White Sox skipper for Mercedes’ trials after having publicly called him out for swinging away and homering on a

3 -0 pitch in a 1 5 -4 game back in May. Except the next day, after getting a

call from La Russa assuring him he still had a big league future, Mercedes announced he was coming back. But here’s the thing: The 28-year-old Mercedes was a 10-year minor leaguer before the White Sox, beset with injuries, gave him his chance this year, and even after the league caught up with him, La Russa continued to play him when he went 4-for-34 with no extra base hits from June 14-26. … Next Saturday at Citi Field Jon Matlack will be inducted into the Mets’ Hall of Fame, along with Edgardo Alfonzo and Ron Darling. Just wondering if anyone remembers when Tom Seaver blew a save for Matlack? It was July 11, 1971, right before the All-Star break, which is why Seaver, who was chosen as one of the NL All-Star starters, was pitching in relief and came on in the top of the eighth with a 3-2 Mets lead against the Reds and gave up a three-run homer to Tony Perez, costing Matlack the win. “I used to kid Tom about that all the time,” Matlack said. “I told him if I wind up with 299 wins, it’s going to be your fault.”