BOSTON — In Mickey Callaway’s defense, maybe he wasn’t at Forbes Field on May 25, 1935, or perhaps he didn’t watch the Braves-Pirates game on his LCD TV via his MLB Extra Innings package, or stream it on his iPhone.

Yet the Mets’ manager opened up a time portal to that day late Tuesday night, after watching Robinson Cano, amidst a dreadful debut season with the Mets, go deep three times to lead his team to a 5-2 victory over the Padres.

“You don’t hit three homers if you’re declining,” said Callaway — who, to be fair, wasn’t born until May 13, 1975.

Almost 40 years before Callaway’s arrival, Babe Ruth, who must have looked awfully strange playing in a Boston Braves uniform, slugged a two-run homer in the first inning against Pittsburgh’s Red Lucas, ripped a two-run homer off Guy Bush in the third, delivered an RBI single in the fifth against Bush and, versus Bush once more in the seventh, capped his helluva contest with a solo homer. Joe Lowry replaced the Babe in right field for the bottom of the seventh, and the Pirates outlasted their challengers, 11-7.

The next day, against the Reds in Cincinnati, Ruth went 0-for-4. That would be the last full game he ever played. The last of his three homers on the 25th would be his last hit. At age 40, he retired on June 2, sporting a .181/.359/.431 slash line with the Braves. He and the Yankees had parted ways after the 1934 season.

Now, other factors came into play. The Babe had joined the Braves in the hopes of selling some tickets for them in the short term and managing them in the long term. When he read the tea leaves and saw that wasn’t happening, he shut it down.

Cano, meanwhile, certainly has looked better in the small sample size of the season’s second half. None of us expect him to retire in a week, although that would thrill everyone in Queens. Nevertheless, Ruth’s dead-cat bounce serves as a lesson that should be reiterated now: One great night shouldn’t be given too much weight.

For just as the Babe followed his three-homer, one-single performance in ‘35 with an 0-for-4, Cano ripped three homers and a single Tuesday…and went 0-for-4 on Wednesday.

This week’s Pop Quiz question came from Jay Berman of Coral Springs, Fla.: Name the manager, a future Hall of Famer, who went on a 15-week vaudeville tour in 1912, sharing tales of his baseball career with audiences.

Newly minted Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera will be feted by the city of New Rochelle this Saturday, July 27, at City Hall there. He’ll receive the key to the city at 9:45 a.m., followed by a parade in the best-ever closer’s honor at 10.

The Pop Quiz answer is John McGraw.

If you have a tidbit that connects baseball with popular culture, please send it to me at kdavidoff@nypost.com.