Report: Dad Doesn’t Want To Talk On Drive Home From Mets Game

In a chilling reversal from the drive to the stadium, longtime Mets fan Milton Hethrington III, of Sag Harbor, N.Y., declined to engage his family in spirited banter on the nearly two-hour drive home from Citi Field on Thursday night after the Mets’ loss.

Hethrington III, whose family has enjoyed Mets season tickets since 1981, reveled in the tradition he was passing down to his kids: making a day of it, arriving at the ballpark early, ordering Cracker Jacks and whisky lemonades, and using a pair of binoculars to see the game despite sitting in the family box along the first-base line. “Ah, baseball,” Hethrington said several times, breaking the silence on the drive to Queens. “I really think this is the year. Maybe I’ll get a sundae helmet. What do you boys think?” he asked his twin sons, Heathcliffe and Ashley. “Do you think Dad should get one of those ice-cream helmets at the baseball game?” 

The drive home, however, revealed a more introspective Hethrington, as he declined to review the game’s key moments or the incident when, reaching for a foul ball, he upset the sundae helmet onto his corduroy pants. When his son Ashley asked, “Father, would you like to talk?” Hethrington replied, “I would not.” And when Heathcliffe said, “Boy, Juan Soto really—” Hethrington broke him off with a “Tut-tut.” 

Added Hethrington, “Tut-tut.” 

The game in question had the <Mets up 2–0 until the Dbacks blew it open with a five-run eighth. They scored four more in the ninth and the game ended with reliever Kevin Ginkel striking out Francisco Lindor.> Hethrington made his boys stay in their seats until most of the crowd had exited the stadium. 

When they arrived at home, Hethrington sent the boys inside while he stayed completely silent and motionless in the car for another hour and a half, exiting only upon sighing the words, “Ah, baseball.”