Arizona Diamondbacks slugger Tommy Pham homered and tripled in a win over the Padres on Saturday, but his day will likely be remembered for a profane exchange with some front-row fans in San Diego.
Pham got into an altercation with a few spectators in the first inning near the on-deck circle before his first at-bat, although the two parties have different perspectives on exactly what transpired.
‘She was drunk,’ Pham, a former Padres outfielder, told reporters following Saturday’s doubleheader. ”F you, Tommy Pham, that’s why we got rid of you.” I’m like, ”Lady, I reached free agency. They didn’t get rid of me … In fact, they tried to re-sign me.’
A fan video has since gone viral, showing Pham reacting to the spectators and claiming one of them called him a ‘piece of s***.’
‘Don’t disrespect me like that,’ Pham said to the fan, who denied the claim.
Pham got into an altercation with a few spectators in the first inning near the on-deck circle
A fan video has since gone viral, showing Pham reacting to the spectators
‘I did not,’ the man is heard saying.
When the fan said, ‘go strike out,’ Pham, who is black, accused him of racism.
‘It’s always funny when you’ve got a white man — a white man — feel like they can disrespect me,’ Pham said. ‘A black man or a Latino don’t do that s***.’
Video of the incident was posted online by Patrick Dailey, a Padres fan whose wife was in attendance and appears to be the person who filmed the exchange.
A Padres spokesperson said no fans were ejected as a result of the verbal confrontation.
Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said of the altercation: ‘These fans are awful to Tommy. I hear some terrible things coming from the stands….It’s ugly and I have been uncomfortable with it from my vantage point.’
Pham did have the last laugh on Saturday, hitting a two-run homer and a triple in a 6-4 win over his former team.
The former Padres slugger left San Diego for Cincinnati in free agency in 2022. He has since played for the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets before being dealt to Phoenix before this season’s trade deadline.
