Let’s begin with recent Pop Quiz questions:
1. From Gary Mintz of South Huntington: The 2010 film “Chasing 3000” centers on two brothers’ journey to see a future Hall of Famer record his 3,000th hit. Name the player.
2. From Bob McLaughlin of Guilderland, NY: Name the former minor league player who appeared in a 1966 episode of “Lost in Space.” Hint: His nephew later played for the Mets.
OK, so last December, when the Yankees signed Jacoby Ellsbury, I wrote this column mentioning several reasons why the Red Sox felt OK about Ellsbury jumping to their rivals. One of them was “the development of Jackie Bradley Jr.” I tweeted a link to my column on Dec. 5, just as I usually promote my work.
And that was when things turned memorable.
A tweep who has the handle @MommaLombardi and goes by “Joe Smith” — a fiery Yankees fan — took issue with my mention of Bradley:
I responded in my characteristic, condescending manner:
Joe wasn’t ready to give up on this topic:
And that was when a typical Twitter discussion took a turn for the surreal:
All of a sudden, I didn’t need to argue with Joe anymore. Jackie Bradley Jr. had taken up his own cause. Bradley and the fan went back and forth a few more times. It was like the scene in “Annie Hall” when Alvy summons Marshall McLuhan to dress down a gasbag professor — spouting an uninformed opinion about McLuhan’s work — on line at the movies.
I kept this anecdote in my pocket for a few months, until I had the opportunity to ask Bradley about it. That opportunity came at George M. Steinbrenner Field last week, when Bradley accompanied the Red Sox to a game against the Yankees.
Bradley said he sort of recalled the exchange, though he also made it clear it wasn’t an isolated incident.
“I feel like there’s going to be a lot of people that say a lot of different things,” he said. “I feel like, sometimes if you stand up for what you feel like is right, I guess you do earn respect from most people. … Sometimes it’s a fun thing, to say some things and do it in a respectful way. I felt like I did it in a respectful way, and I was being myself.”
I asked Bradley how in the world he even found my exchange with Joe. It’s not like either of us used the @JackieBradleyJr handle. Did he have a Google News alert?
“I’m not even sure how I found it,” he responded. “It’s cool, though. It’s exciting. You’ve got to have some fun with it. They’re going to have fun with it. That’s the way I see it. It’s all about having some fun.”
Well, I consider it the most fun I’ve ever had on Twitter. So I hope Bradley keeps engaging and defending like this.
Of course, Bradley has endured a tough spring. Through 16 games, he has a .188/.250/.313 slash line. The surprising surge of minor-league free agent Grady Sizemore for the Red Sox means that Bradley might start the season at Triple-A Pawtucket.
Which means, you know, Bradley’s development isn’t quite finished yet. We’ll see, in time, whether he can defend himself on the field as well as he can in the Twitterverse.
Your Pop Quiz answers:
1. Roberto Clemente
2. Kurt Russell.
If you have a tidbit that correlates baseball with popular culture, please send it to me at KDavidoff@nypost.com.