If you haven’t heard already, which you likely have, El Niño got caught on the juice. He tested positive for taking the performance enhancing drug Clostebol and will be serving an eighty game suspension for violating the MLB’s Prohibited Substance policy. Many of the game’s greatest have come out publicly and shown their distaste for Tatis once the news had dropped, but none is more angry than Jonathan Papelbon. The former Red Sox closer was DISGUSTED with this breaking news, and went off on Tatis on “The Bradfo Sho” podcast.
Per TMZ, Papelbon, in a fit of rage stated, “”I’ll tell you right now, if I was pitching, every single time I face that dude, I’m drilling him … I don’t care if I’m bringing in a run and losing the game.”
“This whole Tatis stuff, man, it almost enrages me. “I worked my ass off so long and so hard and did it the right way. For me, to see something like that, it hurts me so bad.”
Papelbon has always been a gritty player in favor of a gritty game. I am too honestly, I feel like the game should definitely revert to it’s old ways. Like, if you want to plunk somebody, you won’t risk a suspension and a billion dollar fine. It’s almost like the players can’t run the game themselves, or have any sort of on field personality. Papelbon continued to add, “that’s the problem with the game today now, is it’s changed … You throw [at] people now, and you get suspended and all the other BS, and it’s like just let the players police the game.”
“That’s what I miss about the game now is, you look in the past, and the players were the ones who policed the game. Not the damn umpires or the coaches, or any of them. It was the players. [And] that’s what the game lost.”
Nowadays, the umpires save many players from getting plunked. Granted, you can’t save everyone (*cough cough* Jose Altuve *cough cough*) but they do more than they should. The emotion in the game is soooo important, and the umpires take that liberty away from players in today’s game. Papelbon, along with many superstar level big leaguers are extremely dissapointed with Tatis for his stupid decision to blast gear. Papelbon though, wants to hit Fernando with a baseball! Really hard! Watch out F-Rod, sleep with one eye open. Jonny P is comin’ for ya.
