Mark Teixeira beefed with Vicente Padilla because one guy hit homers and the other hit people

SB Nation

Mark Teixeira and Vicente Padilla are very   Teixeira is the kinda guy who, when he says a hard collision was an accident, everyone believes him and the league doesn’t fine him and the guy he smashed into has no hard feelings.   Padilla is the kinda guy who when he says a beanball was an accident, nobody believes him, including his own teammates.  Teixeira is considered a gentleman, if a bit too perfect.  Padilla is considered a headhunter– though he says he’s not, he just happens to throw inside a lot and accidents happen and actually everyone’s wrong about Teixeira he’s the jerk.    Subscribe: http://goo.gl/Nbabae  Enter the Secret Base: http://www.sbnation.com/secret-base  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/secretbase  Follow us on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/secretbasesbn  Follow us on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@secretbasesbn?  Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/9pMHRV  Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/NvpZFF  Explore SB Nation: http://www.sbnation.com

Transcript

00:00Mark Teixeira and Vicente Padilla are very different people. Teixeira is the kind of guy

00:06who, when he says a hard collision was an accident, everyone believes him, and the league doesn't

00:11fine him, and the guy he smashed into has no hard feelings. Padilla is the kind of guy who,

00:17when he says a beanball was an accident, nobody believes him, including his own teammates.

00:22Teixeira is considered a gentleman, if a bit too perfect. Padilla is considered a headhunter.

00:30Though he says he's not, he just happens to throw inside a lot and accidents happen,

00:35and actually, everyone's wrong about Teixeira. He's the jerk.

00:39This episode of Beef History is brought to you by T-Mobile, the best 5G coverage in the game,

00:43home and away, on America's largest 5G network. Learn more at T-Mobile.com slash MLB.

00:49In 2005, when Teixeira was on the Rangers and Padilla was on the Phillies, the two faced

00:55off for the very first time. And Teixeira walloped a homer. Same game, Texas next at bat, he took

01:02Padilla for another dinger. Same game, Texas third at bat, Padilla hit him. So the two did not start

01:09off their relationship on the best foot. While both guys had reason to be pissed off, Padilla,

01:14embarrassment, Teixeira, pain. This wasn't beef yet. There weren't any spicy quotes in the press,

01:22Padilla rarely spoke to the media, and texts didn't tend to speak badly about people in general.

01:27The following season, Padilla was traded to the Rangers, and the two found themselves teammates.

01:32So they patched things up, let bygones be bygones, and bunked together on road trips?

01:38Not quite. You see, Padilla didn't turn out to be the best teammate in the world.

01:43I mean, if you just look at specific stats, he was great for the team. He surprisingly broke out as

01:48their best starting pitcher, the closest thing they had to an ace. But if you keep looking at the stat

01:54sheet, you'd see that in the two seasons he overlapped with Tex, he hit 26 batters. This has

02:02team-wide ramifications. The best batters on the Rangers, mainly Teixeira and Michael Young,

02:07were often hit in retaliation. Tex was hit four times by a team that had been drilled by Padilla.

02:13The slugger didn't say anything publicly at the time, but we'll soon learn he absolutely held a

02:19grudge. And Padilla's penchant for aiming for the body made the Rangers a worse team. Let's take a look

02:26at the 2006 mid-August series against division rival Los Angeles Angels. Padilla hit Vlad Guerrero and

02:33received a warning. Next time, he brushed Guerrero back. But after that, Guerrero hit a three-run homer

02:40off him. So then Padilla nailed Juan Rivera and was ejected. Losing your best starting pitcher isn't

02:47great, especially when you're struggling to stay in the AL West race. The Rangers were tied for second

02:53and five and a half games behind first place. And the team tied with them? That'd be the Angels.

03:00And it gets worse. Because if we reference the unofficial baseball code of conduct section 32b,

03:05clause 6 reads, an eye for an eye. The following night, the Angels retaliated by beaning two Rangers,

03:12including Michael Young. Then the Rangers' Scott Feldman felt compelled to retaliate to those hits by

03:18plunking Adam Kennedy, at which point everyone said, enough is enough, let's just kill each other.

03:23I believe that's Tex in the mix there. Padilla was suspended five games, Scott Feldman was suspended

03:28six, and Texas manager Buck Showalter was suspended four games, which is not gonna help you stay in the

03:34pennant race. And it's all Padilla's fault. His teammates spoke out, but Teixeira was not one of

03:41those teammates. Not really his style to badmouth anyone in the press, and this instance was no

03:47exception. The Rangers did not stay in the pennant race and missed the postseason in 06.

03:52In the middle of the following season, Tex was traded away, and the two stayed on their

03:57individual trajectories for the remainder of the season. Padilla threw at Nick Swisher in September,

04:02caused a brawl, and was suspended. Tex played well. Our adversaries met a couple of times in 08,

04:09but nothing too eventful happened. Some strikeouts, some walks, some sacrifice flies. Was the past behind

04:15them? All forgotten and forgiven? Nope. June 2nd, 2009, Padilla's still with the Rangers, Teixeira's on

04:23the Yankees, and Padilla plunked him, not once, but twice. After the second shot, a butt shot, Teixeira

04:31finally let his anger show. Then he took a hard but clean slide into second that many considered

04:38retaliation, though Teixeira admitted nothing. This amount of on-field emotion was rare for Teixeira,

04:45and it did nothing but raise his status in the eyes of Yankee fans. This was his first year in New

04:51York, and he had a reputation for being good at baseball, but in a way that a robot would be good

04:56at baseball. He's a little too perfect, a little dull, a little unrelatable. But this guy? He was

05:03exactly what the Yankees needed. Case in point, that hard slide into second he wouldn't admit was

05:09retaliation? Well, it broke up with double play and served as the momentum shifter of the game,

05:14which the Yankees then won. Oh, and about that whole gentleman who never has a bad word to say

05:20about anybody? Well, that changed. After the game, Teixeira let feelings he'd had pent up since Padilla

05:26first hit him in 2005 fly free. He not so subtly maligned the pitcher's ability,

05:33and integrity, claimed Padilla also had feelings from 2005, and he let them fly every chance he got.

05:41Teixeira shed some light on their time as teammates. Turns out he actually asked Padilla to stop hitting

05:47batters because of the retaliation, but Padilla simply ignored him. For what it's worth, Padilla said

05:53he didn't hit Teixeira on purpose in that Yankee game. But seems his word wasn't worth much here. A few

06:00days later, Padilla was put on waivers, which was significant because the pitcher had been pretty

06:05good. This was his first game off the DL, and before that time off, his numbers weren't bad. Not to

06:11mention, Texas didn't really have a great replacement in their rotation. But his pitching granted him no

06:17forgiveness. Teammates were frustrated, and the organization felt they had to send Padilla a

06:22message. That message being, stop hitting people who are willing to drop you. I imagine this could

06:28have been quite frustrating for Padilla when viewed through a certain light. Tex throws a little tantrum,

06:33and slides really hard, and everyone loves him, while Padilla's the bad guy almost getting kicked off

06:38the team. But whatever Padilla was thinking, he certainly didn't heed the team's message. About two

06:45months later, he beamed A's batter Kurt Suzuki. The A's retaliated by hitting Michael Young, which Padilla

06:52thought was very, very funny. Not sure Michael Young would agree. And a few days after that, Padilla was

06:59designated for assignment. His teammates were glad to see him go. Fans too. Meanwhile, the rest of 2009

07:08was pretty nice for Mark Teixeira. All that might have annoyed Padilla, though he didn't have a bad

07:16end of the season either. The Dodgers picked him up, and he did well for them. He's a good pitcher.

07:22So, did World Series titles or career upswings provide some perspective that lessened the beef?

07:28You know, sort of like, we've got bigger fish to fry now? Well, let me ask you a question. How many

07:33people do you know who prefer fried fish to beef? Even if you come up with a list, Mark Teixeira isn't

07:40on it. In 2012, Teixeira took Padilla for a go-ahead two-run triple. After the game, the gentleman robot had

07:48more to say. Mainly that Padilla plays cheap and should be suspended. Padilla defended himself. He's just a

07:55guy who's not afraid to throw inside, and Teixeira is just a guy who maybe isn't tough enough for this

08:01game. Don't know why he had to bring women into it. It's like he wants me to talk about c-sections,

08:07even though a lot of people have told me to stop doing that. Padilla also challenged the notion that

08:12Tex was some upstanding nice guy. He accused him of racism and claimed Tex once threatened him with a bat.

08:18An unnamed teammate confirmed the bat threat, but said it didn't seem racially motivated. And other

08:24Hispanic teammates came forward to say they never experienced any racism from Teixeira. Tex didn't

08:30take Padilla's accusations too seriously. And he spoke to Padilla's sexist comment, too. Trying to get

08:37me to take sides in this beef. Tex also revealed why Padilla was booted from the Rangers. It wasn't just

08:43that he threw baseballs at people. It was that he laughed on the bench while Young got drilled in

08:47retaliation. I believe Tex's point is, this guy isn't just a headhunter. He's a jerk. Oh, and Teixeira

08:55also got some more revenge on the field. In July, Tex hit a game-tying two-run homer off Padilla and

09:01admired it for a bit. This is pretty unusual behavior for Mark Teixeira. The Yankees' home crowd

09:08absolutely loved the gloating. But this time, Teixeira didn't comment much after the game.

09:14In fact, he downplayed the sweet revenge angle, claiming he wasn't gloating when he watched his

09:20shot. Hmm. Yeah, I guess that could go foul. Somehow. Tex even tried ending this chapter of beef.

09:28Although Padilla might have seen this as an invitation to hit him again. But the pitcher never got a chance

09:34to accept that invitation. He was a free agent after the 2012 season and signed with a Japanese

09:39team that offered him more money than he'd get in MLB, so perhaps he doesn't mind Tex getting the

09:45last move in their game of beef chess. By the way, Milton Bradley, if you're listening, get in touch

09:50with me for an exciting investment opportunity. Not every beef has such clear good guy, bad guy roles.

09:56And if you believe Padilla, this one doesn't either. But people tend not to believe the Sente Padilla.

10:04So, seems like he is the loser of this beef. But it kinda depends how much it hurts to get drilled by

10:11baseballs.

10:21Thank you for watching, and thank you to our Patreon subscribers. If you're not yet a Patreon subscriber,

10:27consider this your personal invitation, Josh? Did I guess your name? Let me know in the comments.

10:33Or let me know by subscribing to the Patreon. For Secret Base, I'm Clara Morse. Good night and good game.

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