Boston Red Sox reliever Vicente Padilla accused the New York Yankees’ Mark Teixeiraof prejudice against Latin players and also told the first baseman to go play a “women’s sport.”
Teixeira laughed off the comments, calling them “completely erroneous.”
“That’s just comedy,” Teixeira said prior to Sunday night’s first half finale between the Yankees and Red Sox. “It’s funny. It really is.”
Padilla and Teixeira have had a feud that dates back seven years. In his initial two at-bats against Padilla in 2005, Teixeira hit homers each time. Since, according to Teixeira, Padilla has been head-hunting.
Following the homers, Teixeira had been hitless in eight at-bats, walked four times and had been hit three times before his go-ahead two-run, seventh inning triple in the Yankees’ victory over the Red Sox Friday. Afterward, Teixeira said that Padilla has no friends in the game because of his head-hunting ways.
Teixeira relished the hit even more because when Padilla and Teixeira were teammates, Teixeira felt that he and Michael Young had to pay the price for Padilla’s penchant for hitting batters. Padilla first fired back in an interview with NESN.com.
“In this sport, as competitive ball players, we get pretty fired up,” Padilla said, according to NESN.com. “So I think, maybe, (Teixeira) picked the wrong profession. I think he’d be better off playing a women’s sport.”
Padilla then implied that Teixeira had issues with Padilla and former teammate Frank Franciscobecause they were Latin.
“The problem is he talks about all the wrong things that others have done, but the things he’s done — against the Latinos (on the Texas Rangers) — he doesn’t open his mouth about,” Padilla told the website. “He once threatened me and said he was going to hit me with a bat, and that’s when we were playing on the same team.”
In an interview Sunday with ESPN Deportes, Padilla expanded on his comments about the bat incident.
“We had some problems when we were teammates,” Padilla told Deportes. “We used to be friends, but then there was this incident when I hit someone unintentionally and then he got hit and then he said he would retaliate and hit me with a bat and I guess it escalated from there.”
He said that Teixeira has “a bit of a problem with Hispanic players,” but didn’t offer more details.
“I ask you guys to interview every one of my Latin teammates in this clubhouse right now and ask them,” Teixeira said. “That’s why it is funny because it is completely erroneous. That’s a good word.”
Teixeira went into more detail about his issues with Padilla in Texas.
“Michael Young and I were kind of the mainstays in Texas and had been there the longest,” Teixeira said. “We hit 2-3 in the lineup, had really good years when we were there. The last straw when we were in Texas was when Michael Young got hit and they showed (Padilla) laughing on the bench. I think he got released that day. Michael Young is one of my best friends in baseball. So we obviously took exception every time we got hit because of his actions. That’s putting our season and our team in jeopardy.”
In his interview with Deportes, Padilla didn’t back off his comments, which are demeaning to women athletes.
“We are all men here playing baseball,” Padilla said. “We don’t need no women playing baseball.”
Padilla added, “He is always crying and complaining. If he has a base hit, he cries, if he doesn’t, he cries. I just meant that not even women complain as much as him.”
Teixeira said he doesn’t plan to seek out Padilla to discuss their differences.
“I hope this is the last time I have to talk about it,” Teixeira said. “The fact of the matter is certain things happen in this game. Hitters don’t have the same power that pitchers do. Pitchers can do those kind of things. Hitters just have to take it. The only other thing I could do is charge the mound, like Swish.”
In 2007, current Yankee Nick Swisher, then a member of the Oakland Athletics, charged the mound after being hit by Padilla.
“I don’t want to charge the mound because I don’t want to get my teammates hurt,” Teixeira said. “I’ve had too many teammates get hurt in bench-clearing brawls. That would be selfish of me. I’m just not going to do that.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that if he thought there was an obvious spot where one of his players might get hit by an opponent, he would consider pinch-hitting for them.
WRITTEN BY Andrew Marchand | ESPNNewYork.com - Information from ESPN Deportes’ Marly Rivera and Enrique Rojas was used in this report & FULL STORY HERE
