Perhaps the craziest story in baseball this season involves the sport's best player, Mike Trout, yet it has nothing to do with baseball, but rather fantasy football and a legendary league that Trout is the commissioner of. If that's not the most MLB thing ever, we're not sure what is.
Trout, who the MLB has failed to properly market for his entire career, is finally grabbing headlines but for all the wrong reasons. Last month, when Cincinnati Reds outfielder Tommy Pham slapped San Francisco Giants slugger Joc Pederson in the head during batting practice, it was revealed that the bizarre altercation was born out of a year-long fantasy football beef between the two players. Pederson had apparently said "some disrespectful sh--" in the fantasy football group chat about Pham's former team, the San Diego Padres, and also "f---ed" with Pham's money, according to Pham.
A night before the slap, Pederson called it "an unfortunate situation," claiming he had placed a player on the injured reserve list when they were out, then added another player off waivers. Someone in the group chat accused Pederson of cheating and "stashing" players on his bench. Pederson pointed out that Pham had done the same thing, but Pham was in two ESPN leagues and in one of them the player in question was on IR, but in the other the player was not. If you're wondering why grown men who get paid millions to play baseball allowed a fantasy football situation to get this heated, it's possibly because the league features a $10,000 buy-in and a waiting list to even get in the league.
That's where Trout comes in. The Angels outfielder is the commissioner of said league, and Pham called him "the worst commissioner in fantasy sports" during the fallout of the Pederson slap, which Pham was suspended three games for. Trout responded by saying "every commissioner I know gets booed."
It just so happens that Trout was on Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN this past Sunday night, with his struggling Angels taking on the New York Mets. In the middle of the game, the ESPN announcing crew interviewed Trout live on air while he was in the dugout with the Angels up to bat, and the fantasy football saga inevitably came up:
Pretty good stuff, though ESPN conveniently left out the best part of the interview. Remember that "confusion" Pederson mentioned about Pham's player on the IR in one league, but not on the IR in another? Trout alluded to said confusion and began to imply it was because of the ESPN website ... then he realized he was live on ESPN:
Damn, we came literal inches from Trout crapping on ESPN ON ESPN. What an all-time live television moment that would have been. Real, raw, and, let's be honest, extremely accurate. Anyone who has ever used ESPN for a fantasy league (I assume everyone reading this as well as everyone not reading this) knows it is the absolute worst site for fantasy leagues. As a commissioner myself, our league made the switch to Yahoo years ago and we've never turned back. ESPN, the Worldwide Leader in Sports, is somehow terrible at fantasy sports. Trout knows it, we know it. Hell, ESPN probably knows it. Instead of blaming Trout, perhaps Pham should have taken that into consideration.
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