There is a video of the slap that has gone viral, and it wasn’t soft.
It shows Tommy Pham approaching Joc Pederson before the Giants-Reds game on Friday, and swinging on him with an open hand.
“There was no real argument,” Pederson said. “He kind of came up and said, ‘You remember from last year?’ And I was like, ‘Fantasy football?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah.’ “
On back-to-back days, Pederson has explained his side of things, telling reporters Pham was still angry about their league, accusing Pederson of cheating by placing a ruled-out player on injured reserve. Pham was suspended three games on Saturday for the altercation.
Pederson showed reporters text messages from the group chat that started all of this. It included him sending a GIF of three weightlifters with Giants, Dodgers, and Padres logos superimposed on them. The Padres one collapsed under the weight of his dumbbell. Pham was with the Padres at the time.
“Joc I don’t know you well enough to make any jokes like this,” Pham wrote in the chat.
“It was meant to be all fun and games. No hard feelings,” Pederson responded. “Sorry if you took it that way.”
Clearly, Pham did.