Is Lucas Duda's hot streak because of teammates' Instagram account?
Is Lucas Dudas' hot streak due to Instagram account?
Exactly a month ago Friday we used this space to introduce you to possibly the greatest summer addition to the social media landscape: A magical Instagram account that gave you all angles of your favorite secretive slugger, Lucas Duda.
Spurred by Curtis Granderson, John Mayberry Jr. and Danny Muno, the WeFollowLucasDuda account debuted to rave reviews at a time when its subject was mired in a miserable slump. The Real Duda -- along with his reluctant, half-smiling cyber personality -- had seen his batting average drop more than 50 points in the previous month, over which he managed just one home run.
That's when right fielder and budding paparazzi Granderson spearheaded a campaign to loosen up Duda and introduce him to the world. Photos showed Duda adding a certain comforting Duda-ness to mundane life events. There was Duda parking his car. There was Duda eating his lunch. There was Duda staring ominously at his socks.
"I just like to mess with him," Granderson said.
Call it coincidence. Call it clubhouse cohesion. Call it whatever you want. But something magical started happening. Duda's dead bat sprung back to life.
Duda is slashing .268/.371/.720 in the month since the account debuted, and leading MLB with 11 home runs. Nine of those came historically in a stretch of eight games, making Duda the first Mets player to clobber that many long balls in such a span. At one point, eight straight Duda hits landed over the wall, and the first one not to bounced off it for a game-winning double.
Meanwhile, the account's popularity continued to soar. It's lost two operators in Mayberry (released) and Muno (demoted), but gained nearly 30,000 followers as Granderson tirelessly pumps out behind-the-scenes Dudaisms unavailable anywhere else. Was that Duda adjusting his cup? Was that Duda wearing a cowboy hat? Was that Duda .. graduating high school? For Mets fans, Throwback Thursday never felt so good.