It was nearly a month ago when Tommy Pham delivered the slap heard ‘round baseball during batting practice and was suspended for all three of the Cincinnati Reds’ games against the San Francisco Giants.
Now Pham and the altercation with Joc Pederson that stemmed from a fantasy football league will return to center stage as the Reds travel to San Francisco for a three-game series this weekend. Both Pham and Pederson say the incident is behind them, but Pham will likely hear a lot about the slap from the Oracle Park crowd.
What type of reaction does Pham expect from the opposing crowd?
“Clapping,” said a smiling Pham, who didn’t want to discuss the slap altercation further.
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The last time Pham heard boos throughout a series was his return to San Diego in April. His former Padres teammates said they were confused why he was booed, and Pham responded with five hits in 12 at-bats, including first-inning homers in the first two games.
Pederson, speaking to the San Francisco reporters ahead of this weekend’s series, said he hoped Giants fans would remain respectful toward Pham.
“There’s a respect level that needs to be held up, and when you see games in New York or wherever they were, where they start throwing stuff on the field, that is not OK and doesn’t help any situation,” Pederson said. “It makes it so much worse. So just keep it respectful.”
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Here is a refresher on last month’s slap, which generated national headlines:
Why did Pham slap Pederson?
Pham and Pederson were in a high-stakes fantasy football league together and in a group chat with fellow players. Pederson was accused by the group of cheating by placing a player on injured reserve to add another player to his roster. That player wasn’t supposed to be eligible for IR, according to the league’s specific rules, Pham said.
Along with the disagreement over the fantasy football league’s rules, Pham said Pederson sent about four “disrespectful” text messages in the group chat toward the Padres. Pederson shared one of them with San Francisco reporters where there were three weightlifters with team logos above them and the Padres weightlifter was hit by the oversized kettlebell and fell over after throwing it in the air.
Pham warned Pederson he would slap him the next time he saw him. The slap happened during the Reds’ batting practice when Pederson was walking in the outfield past Pham.
“He did some (expletive) I don’t condone,” Pham said the day after the slap, “so I had to address it.”
Said Pederson: "There was no real argument. He came up and said, 'you remember from last year?' I was like, 'fantasy football?' He was like, 'yeah.' Then, yeah."
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What was the fallout from the slap?
Pham was suspended for three games and fined $5,000. Major League Baseball threatened him with an eight-to-10 game ban, Pham told USA TODAY Sports, unless he immediately accepted the three-game suspension, which kept him out of the Reds’ games against the Giants.
Pederson, who did not react physically to the slap and quickly left the field, was not suspended.
There hasn’t been any communication between Pham and Pederson since the slap, and that’s likely to continue this weekend.
“Look, I’m in this game to play baseball,” Pham said the day after the slap. “If he had a problem, he should have addressed it right then and there. There weren’t too many people in the outfield. It was me and (Albert) Almora for a good 20-30 seconds. If you want to do something, you should have done it.”
What did others in the fantasy football league say?
Mike Trout was the commissioner of the 12-player league with a $10,000 buy-in. Pham laughed when he said Trout was the “worst commissioner in fantasy sports.” Trout joked that all the commissioners he knows are booed.
“It’s just one of those things, everybody is competitive,” Trout said. “I think it’s (the media) dragging it on. I talked to Tommy, I talked to Joc, everybody that was part of it. We’re just passionate about fantasy football.”
Alex Bregman won the league, aided by the success of Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase and running back Jonathan Taylor.
“I thought it was a fun league,” Bregman said. “It was a bunch of good guys. I guess I got lucky.”
How do the teams feel about it now?
The Reds and Giants have both appeared to move on from the slap. Giants players did wear T-shirts during batting practice before a game earlier this month that read: “Fantasy Football 101: Stashing Players on the IR isn’t cheating.”
Pederson told the Chronicle the shirts were removed after Pham responded to a tweet about them saying all he needed to do was release the rules of the league and the text saying he’d slap Pederson for cheating.
“They're not going to work anymore,” said Pederson, who was upset the shirts had a replica of his signature. “Guys thought they were funny and wore them out there, but you never know how someone’s going to take something. We’re just working on defusing a situation.”
“They’re the ones who keep bringing this (expletive) up,’’ Pham told USA TODAY Sports. “They’re the ones who didn’t want me to play. Now, look at them.’’
It’s not known whether the umpiring crew will preemptively issue warnings to teams.
“Everyone in here is very over it and kind of past it,” Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski told the Chronicle. “The fans can treat it however they want to, but we’re just going to treat it like every other game and go out and try and win.”
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