Morning Briefing: Ryan Braun catches a beer in wacky start to Brewers-Mets game

If the Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets suddenly got a hold of the Infinity Gauntlet and decided to use it to alter history, you couldn’t blame them for wanting to erase the first inning of their game Sunday.

Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun was tracking a fly ball hit by Pete Alonso. He backed to the wall when a Mets fan, trying to catch the ball with his cup, spilled his beer all over Braun’s head.

Braun was unable to make the catch and Alonso got a triple. Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell asked for a video review, claiming fan interference, but the call on the field was upheld.

“If I could, I would have bought him a beer,� Alonso told the Associated Press after the Mets’ 5-2 victory. “The Mets need to give that guy a beer, for sure. Or a free drink voucher.�

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On the very next pitch, Robinson Cano was hit on the left hand by the pitch from Brewers starter Gio Gonzalez. Unfortunately, Cano swung at the pitch, so it was a strike. To make it even more unfortunate, Cano had to leave the game because his hand was hurting so much.

It was the second time this season that Cano was hit by a pitch while swinging at it. So, if you want to strike out Robinson Cano, just throw the ball at him.

That’s why he’ll be No. 1

When the NHL draft is held on June 21, you can bet that the first pick, by the New Jersey Devils, will be Jack Hughes. And Hughes showed why over the weekend at the IIHF men’s world U18 championship.

Hughes had three points in Team USA’s 5-2 win in the bronze-medal game against rival Canada to finish his U18 worlds career with 32 points, one more than what Alex Ovechkin put up over the 2002 and 2003 tournaments.

“It’s special,� Hughes said. “It’s a cool tournament and I’ve been lucky enough to play in it twice. It’s been two pretty good runs. It’s really cool to be on top of that ranking, but for me this tournament is about gold. For us to come out with bronze, it’s a good ending. We capped off our two years with a win.�

Hughes’ 20 points this year represent the second-highest single-tournament point total in the event’s history and just one point shy of the record set by Nikita Kucherov in 2011.

The bronze medal also extended the country’s medal streak at the Men’s U18 World Championship to 16 consecutive years. Over that span they have nine gold medals, four silver medals and three bronze.

Wave of the future

In 100 years, instead of watching real people play sports on a field or court, we may be watching real people pretend to play sports on our TVs.

In another sign that future may actually be closer than that, Southeast Missouri State University plans to develop an esports venue starting in the fall, aimed at attracting recreational and competitive players.

The university told the Associated Press that the venue will feature two banks of six personal computers facing each other. Video gaming will be available in another corner of the room with consoles for Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo.

A 70-inch TV will provide a view of live games as they’re played.

Director of Recreation Service Mike Buck says esports have aggressively moved into the college environment. Southeast earlier this year created an esports club that now has 60 members. The university also added esports intramurals.

Suddenly, instead of being just an animated film, “Wall-E� seems sort of prescient.