Tommy Pham suspended for three games

Tommy Pham was dropped from the Cincinnati roster shortly before the first pitch on Friday, after a Reds spokesman said he agreed to take time off while MLB investigates. LThe two remaining matches will be purged on Saturday and Sunday

The Reds players were practicing batting at the Great American Ball Park when Tommy Pham and Pederson Game met in left field. Joc Pederson said Tommy Pham confronted him and slapped him. Both sides said the incident involved a player-run “fantasy football” league. Several players intervened in the situation.

“Unfortunate situation,” said Joc Pederson after the Reds’ 5-1 win on Friday. “It sort of stemmed from a fantasy football league that we were both in last year. I put a player on injured reserve when he was listed as an absentee, then added another player. And then there was a text in the chat group saying I was cheating because I was hiding players on my bench.

Tommy Pham, speaking for the first time since the incident, described what happened at a press conference on Saturday afternoon.

“I said, ‘I didn’t forget that, I walked up to him and slapped him,'” he recalled.

What Joc Pederson forgot to tell you too, he said disrespectful things in a text, and I called him about it.”

Tommy Pham claimed the comments were sent to him about his former team, the San Diego Padres.

When asked about the context of the comments, Tommy Pham said they weren’t racist. But it was about his old team, with whom he still has friends.