Cubs’ Javier Baez collects Reds Amir Garrett’s winning shot

It’s been a little while since we’ve had real baseball beef. As any wrestling fan will tell you, the best winning storylines are those that span a long time, sometimes years. This is clearly the lesson Javy Baez and Amir Garrett learned. Last night’s chapter:

Now, if you’re not quite up to date with recent Cubs-Reds history, and there’s no reason to give you the average nature of these two teams this year, it might sound like Baez is. an exaggerated idiot after a win that gets the Cubs exactly nowhere. But that’s not the whole story, or even most of it. It turns out that Garrett is also an exaggerated idiot! (Javy isn’t an idiot either, and I would never be surprised to say something like that about my beloved # 9.)

This has been going on for a little while. In 2017, while Garrett was still a starter for the Reds, Baez tagged him for a grand slam. Baez clearly wasn’t the only one punching Garrett as a starter, as his ERA in that role was a touchdown and a PAT and he was moved to the pen soon after.

This apparently stuck with Garrett for over a year, and someone should tell him that holding a grudge is bad for blood pressure and kidneys (I guess). Garrett retired Baez to bat in August 2018 and did not hide his joy in doing so.

And hey, that’s cool. One for you, one for me, everything is equal, two guys who like to do their job. We can all line up behind this. But if you want a real quarrel, you have to keep going. Earlier this year – so a full three years after it all started – Baez was only too happy to troll Garrett after having a seizure in Wrigley. Which then led Garret to completely become Ric Flair after knocking out Anthony Rizzo later in the season, which resulted in Baez jumping out of the dugout and the benches to clean, and Garrett being suspended thanks to MLB’s convoluted COVID protocols.

So yeah, they’ve been going for a while, and the score seems to be about even. The inclination is to tell Garrett to just bring his ass back to the clubhouse after giving up the winning shot, and Baez was clearly suggesting exactly last night as he redefined the word “mosey” on first base. But Baez did not go quietly in the previous incidents. It’s clearly not over, and we can expect the Reds to get wet as early as tomorrow by throwing on Baez in his first AB (assuming Baez is in the lineup, as he was not yesterday. evening because of a sore heel). The only thing we are missing here is be the generation of Brennaman completely losing their mud if they don’t fall out of the broadcast booth by the actions of a Cub. He might have seriously killed one or both of them anyway. Although hitting Baez won’t do much about Garrett’s ERA which is near 7.00.

There is clearly some frustration for Baez here, who has had an extremely uneven year. His extension talks with the Cubs came to naught. He could be traded this week. And was the target of manager David Ross for a hazy game as Anthony Rizzo and Ross go out drinking together after Rizzo spent another night wandering the bases like he was lost in an art museum and wanted just find the can. But hey, catharsis can look like this.