Tommy Pham hit Joc Pederson b/c Pham is a “high roller”

As you likely have heard by now, before yesterday’s game between the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds, Reds outfielder Tommy Pham slapped Giants outfielder Joc Pederson while the two were out on the field during pre-game warmups. Pham was a late scratch from the lineup, although reports indicated that the Reds resisted the Giants’ initial demand that he not play, only relenting at the eleventh hour.

After the game, Pederson explained that Pham was mad at Pederson over a dispute in a fantasy football league the two are in — specifically, whether a roster move Pederson made was legal or not. Pederson explains, in detail, in the video below:

Fantasy football has been over for months now, so Pham would have had to have saved up his anger for quite some time in order to unleash it yesterday.

Today, Pham addressed the issue, saying he had been suspended for three games, and that Joc “said some shit I don’t condone . . . I had to address it.” It apparently involved Joc shit-talking the San Diego Padres in the league’s group chat.

Pederson was traded to the Atlanta Braves in the middle of 2021, and ended up being part of their World Series winning roster. At the same time the Braves were going on a great run to make the playoffs — they were below .500 as late as August 4 — Pham’s Padres went into an epic collapse, finishing below .500 despite having entered the season being seen as one of the best teams in baseball.

So yeah, I can understand the shit talking.

Pham also explained, however, that the fantasy football league dispute was serious, and that Pederson “was messing with my money.” Pham expanded on that, explaining that he is “a big dog in Vegas” and “a high roller at many casinos.”

So all this is very funny to me. Even before we remember that Pham was the guy who got stabbed outside of a strip club and needed a ton of stitches a year and a half ago.