Professional athletes, they’re just us.
On a bizarre night of barely baseball, much of what surrounded the Giants’ peculiar 5-1 loss to the Reds loomed over the result.
Before the game, according to reports via The Athletic, Reds outfielder Tommy Pham confronted Joc Pederson regarding a fantasy football issue and… slapped him in the face.
“There was no real argument,” Pederson said. “He kind of came up and was like, ‘Remember last year?’ And I was like, ‘Fantasy football?’ I don’t think violence is the answer… It was an unfortunate situation over a fantasy football league rule — it wasn’t a rule.”
Pham was supposed to start as the Reds’ designated hitter, but was scratched minutes before the start of the game.
Pederson regaled reporters after the game in what is one of the funniest, dumbest, and somehow deeply relatable incidents in recent memory. Oh, and it involves the 49ers’ Jeff Wilson Jr.
According to Pederson, it was a matter of Pham getting upset over the fact that Pederson stashed a player who was ruled out for that week on his injured reserve.
Pham accused Pederson of cheating, to which Pederson responded with a screenshot of league rules showing that he was not cheating. He also pointed to Jeff Wilson Jr. — ruled out for that week — who was placed on injured reserve on Pham’s bench.
Anyone who has been in a fantasy sports league knows that great managers use the injured reserve (or injured list) to their advantage. There’s always a sore sport in the bunch. Pham clearly falls in that latter category, to the point that he slapped Pederson in the face.