Jeff Passan, ESPN’s Major League Baseball reporter, gets plenty of opportunities to talk smack on social media. He usually refrains. Saturday was an exception.
Passan reposted a video of Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani celebrating his three-run home run against the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday.
Among the replies to Passan’s post highlighting Ohtani’s celebratory bat chuck was this, from a Padres fan account, @FriarBreaks: “Jeff, where’s Manny’s homer?”
Padres third baseman Manny Machado hit a three-run home run in the first inning of the same game; naturally some Padres fans were hoping for an equal-opportunity celebration from one of the most prominent national MLB reporters on social media.
Jeff, where’s Manny’s homer?
— Friar Breaks (@FriarBreaks) October 6, 2024
Only Passan wasn’t having it.
“If you want to stop being treated like a little brother, stop acting like one,” he wrote back.
If you want to stop being treated like a little brother, stop acting like one.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 6, 2024
The Padres-Dodgers rivalry is a young one. The NLDS marks the second time in the last three years the two National League West rivals have met in the postseason in the last three years. The Padres eliminated the Dodgers in their 2021 series.
But the Dodgers have had the upper hand in the regular season for more than a decade. The 2020 World Series champions haven’t finished lower than San Diego in the regular-season standings since 2010. Seasons in which the Padres challenge the Dodgers in the regular season or postseason have been the exception to the recent rule.
In the nascent rivalry, the Padres are definitely the “little brother.” Passan’s observation played into the trope.
Monday, he went on the Ben and Woods Show on 97.3-FM in San Diego to explain himself — and face the heat.
“What has made this rhetoric frustrating on my end is that I genuinely do not think of the fans that way (as the “little brothers”) either,” Passan said. “Outside of Citizens Bank Park, and maybe inclusive of, Petco Park is the best environment in baseball right now. And that to me illustrates that this team, and these fans, have gone through a wonderful evolution and grown this fan base and become the team of a city that I genuinely love.”
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“San Diego is a baseball town. There are not a lot of baseball towns left. St. Louis is a baseball town. I think New York may be. I think Chicago may be. Boston may be. Cincinnati may be. San Diego is undoubtedly a baseball town, and that right there should be enough to understand that all these things others have called you in the past, they don’t apply now, so stop acting like it.”
Host Steven Woods responded by saying the national media’s perpetuation of the “big brother/little brother” stereotype is bothersome, and that the Dodgers get a pass for their failures that other teams do not.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – SEPTEMBER 10: ESPN baseball analyst Jeff Passan talks on the phone before a game between the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Guardians at Guaranteed Rate Field on September 10, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. Passan enjoyed a give and take with Padres fans over the weekend.
Matt Dirksen/Getty Images
“All we hear is how great (the Dodgers) are, how special they are,” Woods said. “They choke. They’re chokers. No one says it. You don’t. … Everybody just talks about Andrew Friedman, how brilliant he is. Dave Roberts, how great he is.”
Passan said that comment reminded him of his 17-year-old and 12-year-old sons.
“When my 17-year-old gets to do something that my 12-year-old doesn’t, the 12-year-old says, ‘But why?’ And any sentence that starts with ‘but why’ is a sentence that I don’t want to hear finished because I know it’s going to be asking for equal time in equal ways.
“Here’s the kernel: your team is not the little brother. Your fan base is not the little brother. But the segment of people who are looking for equal time with the Dodgers are exhibiting some little brother behavior. … The general interest in the Dodgers exceeds the interest in the Padres — for now. And in the same vein, Ohtani’s the biggest baseball star in the world. I’m going to post about him a lot.”
Kudos to Passan for facing the music. And kudos to the Padres’ flagship radio station for not giving him a free pass.
The Padres can make it easier for their fans to shed their “little brother” reputation by doing something simple if incredibly difficult: eliminating the Dodgers for the second time in three years.
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