Matt Foley, Motivational Catcher
At 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, Matt Foley is a big guy.
One day, he could see himself working as a motivational speaker for young children.
And he lives…at his mom’s house in Rhode Island.
No, Cyclones catcher Matt Foley doesn’t live in a van down by the river, but he embraces the origin of those iconic words.
The Rhode Island College product happens to share his name with the “other” Matt Foley, the hysterical Saturday Night Live character played by Chris Farley in some of the show’s best-known sketches of the 1990s.
Unlike the second-year Mets minor-leaguer, SNL’s Matt Foley is a down-on-his-luck, thrice-divorced motivational speaker who tries to straighten out his audience — typically comprised of a few rebellious teenagers — with a hyper-caffeinated dose of tough love.
If you’ve never seen one of the skits, here’s Farley’s debut performance in the role, which aired in May 1993:
Because he was born a year after that first sketch, the Cyclones’ Matt Foley knew jack squat about his SNL counterpart until middle school.
“When I was a kid during summer camp, I’d have these camp counselors come up to me and ask me, ‘Do you live in a van?’ At that point, I had no idea what they were talking about,” Foley said. “Then I got older and started to realize, ‘Oh my God, this is actually what it means.’ I started going with the flow of it and thought it was hilarious.”
And, until a few years ago, that was all it was for pro-ballplayer Matt Foley, a funny story to retell at each stop in a career that started with the Miami Marlins in 2015 and has since continued with stints in the Braves’ and Mets’ farm systems.
But, in late August of 2016, the story got even funnier.
“The day after I got traded to the Braves for [big-league outfielder Jeff] Francoeur, a buddy from the Marlins texted me a picture of that emoji with a Braves hat,” Foley said in his subtle New England accent. “He told me, ‘Hey, this would be so cool to put on your bat knob.’ So I was like, ‘Okay, I’ll make something out of it.’”
That serendipitous discovery by a friend is why, attached to the knob of each of Matt Foley’s bats, there is a cartoon image of SNL’s legendary furniture-breaker, complete with a Mets ballcap, the trademark plaid suit, and an extra-long green tie.
“I’ve always thought it’s a cool thing that me and [Farley’s] character shared the same name,” Foley said, “so I thought it would be cool to put the decal on there.”
He wasn’t the only person who thought it was a cool thing to do.
Last spring, when Foley was with the Braves at their spring-training complex in Florida, ESPN baseball writer Keith Law happened to be in town. When Law stopped by the clubhouse one day, he spotted the end of Foley’s bat and tweeted a picture.
Well la-dee-freaking-da. By the end of the day, the Seekonk, Mass. native had become a viral sensation.
“I had no idea [Law] saw it,” Foley said. “I got to my hotel room after the day he tweeted it out. My college coach texted me and said, ‘You were just on SportsCenter.’ I was like, ‘No way. What did I do?’ It was for this.”
It’s through nothing but mere coincidence that a 24-year-old minor-league catcher and one of the most recognizable characters in Saturday Night Live history share the same name.
But does Cyclones catcher Matt Foley ever plan to share more than a name with Chris Farley’s character and, say, eat a steady diet of government cheese while living in a van down by the river?
“I get jokes like that all the time,” Foley says. “I always tell my family and friends that I’m going to park my van down by the Hudson River and live out there.”
— Dom
Tonight’s game: Brooklyn at Staten Island — 7:00 p.m.
Richmond County Bank Ballpark, Staten Island, N.Y.
RHP Christian James (1–0, 1.13 ERA) vs. RHP Juan de Paula (0–0, 0.93 ERA)
Audio: brooklyncyclones.com/listen