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ESPN's Jeff Passan Torches 'Bitter' Ex-MLB Player in Brutal Social Media Exchange
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- ESPN's Jeff Passan Torches 'Bitter' Ex-MLB Player in Brutal Social Media Exchange
Credit: Greg Levinsky, Detroit Free Press
ESPN's Jeff Passan is never afraid to spar on social media. And we got a doozy between the reporter and former MLB player Doug Mientkiewicz on X on Friday.
It all started over an innocuous post Passan made about the David Bednar trade to the New York Yankees where the Pittsburgh Pirates received prospects Rafael Flores and Edgleen Perez in return. Passan said Perez makes "good swing decisions" and that comment somehow raised the ire of Mientkiewicz, a career .271 hitter with 66 home runs and a 100 OPS+ across seven different teams over a 12-year career.
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"Man what a time to be alive when a non baseball person writes 'excellent swing decisions' for a guy hitting 209 in A ball and is a career .241 hitter," Mientkiewicz replied. "I swear some scouts and writers will say anything to sound somewhat intelligent to non baseball people."
Passan didn't stand for that and fired back at Mientkiewicz, calling him "bitter."
"That description came from a scout, Doug. Do you hate them, too, or are you just bitter because batting average is no longer the metric people care about and it's the only one you were ever good at? Stay bitter, guy," Passan retorted.
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Mientkiewicz couldn't leave that reply alone and responded: "Glad you finally admitted that guy. Here is a line you should never forget. I can do what you do, you can't do what the players do. Bitter? Not at all. Without players you have no job. Without scouts you have zero knowledge. Don't forget it guy!"
Then Passan went in for the kill.
"It's a good thing I'm trying not to play, Doug. The sad part is that you're trying to think, and you are absolutely terrible at it," the ESPN reporter said. "There's nothing more sad than an old ballplayer who wants things to be like they once were and is too incurious to care the game passed them by."
Passan then concluded: "You had a good career. You were a good ballplayer. You did things I never could. That doesn't give you license to say stupid things. I don't know a lot — so I ask people who do. You think you know a lot — and those who actually do laugh at you."
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Mientkiewicz didn't respond after that final blow.
Mientkiewicz is best known for catching the final out of the 2004 World Series while playing first base for the Boston Red Sox .
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