Dominic Smith has been pretty sure-handed in the outfield over his career with the Mets, playing there more frequently in 2021 than ever and recording a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage in his 117 chances at a putout so far this year. The same can't be said for how good he is at handling his cell phone, though — or should I say cell phones, considering the dude has gone through more than two dozen of them over his life.
He joined the "Chris Rose Rotation," part of Jomboy Media, and talked about his bad habits with his mobile device with Rose and teammate Trevor May.
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"I've probably lost over 25," Smith said after Rose asked him about his cell phone mishaps. "I can ask family members, I can ask friends about the truth for this — at least 25 broken or lost phones in my life. I've been better over the last year and a half, but before that it was at least every two months [that] I needed a new phone."
One such incident was more memorable than the others though, not only because of the momentous occasion in his life during which it occurred, but also because, well, it's pretty disgusting.
"It was a red-eye flight and I had just gotten off the plane and I had to use the bathroom, you know. That's the first thing you do after a long flight," Smith recalled. "And while I'm using the bathroom, I accidentally dropped my phone in the urinal, and just piss all over it... I definitely reached into the urinal and tried to save it. I had to! This was pre-COVID so I didn't think too much about germs as much. Reached in there, washed my hands, we're good to go."
And while his hygiene was then good to go — maybe? — his phone was not. It didn't work, and it broke at a pretty inopportune time: when he had just learned that he had been called up to the bigs.
"I don't even know how to contact the driver picking me up from the airport, so that was its own story," Smith said. "And eventually I got to the field and my first interview, I said, 'Hey, I don't have my phone.' So somebody contact my parents, he let them know I got called up and I'm here."
Sure, the message probably would have been nicer coming from their son himself, but hearing the news that their boy Dom had been called up to the bigs must have been nice to hear anyway. And honestly, we're thankful that Smith's phone wasn't working. Imagine holding your phone up to your ear/mouth area after dropping it in a urinal? Not the best idea in the world.
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