The most bizarre story of the 2022 Major League Baseball season by a wide margin, has been a bitter feud between Tommy Pham of the Cincinnati Reds and Joc Pederson of the San Francisco Giants over... fantasy football. The issue between the two came to a head in May when Pham slapped Pederson across the face prior to a game between the Giants and Reds.
A few weeks after the fact, the Giants formally stuck up for Pederson with new T-shirts that poked fun at the issue that Pham took chagrin with. During warmups prior to a game against the Kansas City Royals, the Giants wore shirts illustrating a point in "Fantasy Football 101," stating that "Stashing players on the IR isn't cheating."
The shirts in question lampooned Pham's main point of contention with Pederson.
In a paid fantasy football league the two were in last season, Pham accused Pederson of cheating after Pederson placed a player on Injured Reserve in order to replace him with a free agent. Pham also believed that Pederson had disrespected his former team, the San Diego Padres, in a text message group by using a meme.
Although many have delighted in the feud between the two -- and the Giants clearly took it as an opportunity to issue a clever retort -- Pederson has tried to distance himself from the issue and the way Pham chose to handle it.
"Violence isn't the answer. It's over as far as I'm concerned," Pederson said in May. "I won't talk to him. I don't think he wants to talk to me. I don't know, it was a weird interaction."
The Giants are set to play the Reds three times later in June, starting on the 24th.
