CINCINNATI — Major League Baseball suspended Cincinnati Reds outfielder Tommy Pham for three games after beating Joc Pederson.
Pederson, who played for the Atlanta Braves last year, confirmed Pham hit him during an argument over their fantasy football league.
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A new video circulated on social media over the weekend showing the confrontation between the two players and a slap in the face.
Tommy Pham punched Joc Pederson in the head and was banned for three games because persistent resentment against an IR designation rule in their fantasy football league spilled over into real life and led to Pham’s attack.
Baseball isn’t real. It’s a crazy lib. pic.twitter.com/0a41Yi0DGD
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 28, 2022
Pederson said the fantasy football beef was over to put a player on injured reserve and replace him with free agency. He said the move was legal because the player was ruled out for the week.
“I sent a screenshot of the rules that says if a player is banned you’re allowed to put them in the IR and that’s all I did,” Pederson said. “He literally did the same thing. That was basically all.”
Pham said some “patchy” things happened in their fantasy league on Saturday, and Pederson also made “disrespectful” comments about Pham’s former team, the San Diego Padres.
“We had too much money at stake, so I look at it like there’s a code,” Pham said.
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Pederson confirmed to reporters Saturday that Pham was telling the truth and that the money involved was big, though no one confirmed the sum.
He also showed reporters the messages he sent in a group chat with the Padres about their late-season struggles while Pederson and the Braves saw success.
“In the group chat there were a few too – there was more than one padre, it was four or five, I’m quite close to some of them,” Pederson said. “It should be a friendly thing, just make fun of them playing badly and just talk back and forth. And yeah, (Pham) didn’t like that and he replied, ‘Joc, I don’t know you well enough to joke like that.’”
Joc emerged with receipts from the fantasy football group chat with Tommy Pham, which included a GIF of him poking fun at the Padres last season pic.twitter.com/rCYbFRdwA8
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) May 29, 2022
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This weekend, Pederson and Pham faced off for the first time with their new teams. Pederson said he didn’t know Pham would do anything like what happened on Friday.
“There was no argument. He kind of came up to me and said, ‘Remember last year?’ and I said, ‘Fantasy football?’” Pederson recalled.
Pham served a 3-game suspension over the weekend. The league also fined him.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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