Vincente Padilla and Mark Teixeira reignite ongoing feud
It looks like girls aren’t the only ones who like a little drama.
New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira and Boston Red Sox pitcher Vicente Padilla have been going at it for seven years now despite sporting Texas Rangers uniforms together on the 2006-07 Rangers roster.
Before they shared the same clubhouse, Teixeira started the name-calling, dubbing Padilla a ‘head-hunter’ after a few rough pitches, which Teixeira felt was in retaliation to homering against the hot-tempered pitcher.
Padilla fired back in a NESN interview earlier this month:
“In this sport, as competitive ball players, we get pretty fired up. So I think, maybe, (Teixeira) picked the wrong profession. I think he’d be better off playing a women’s sport.”
Padilla then also accused Teixeira of being racist toward Hispanics. Teixeira laughed at the accusations and said they were “erroneous,” citing that Padilla should be suspended for his dirty play.
That didn’t stop Padilla’s spitfire as he continually attacked Teixeira saying, “He is always crying and complaining. If he has a base hit, he cries. If he doesn’t, he cries,” he told NESN.
Since then, Teixeira has tried to dim the fire on this ongoing feud by limiting his comments. Regardless, homering off of Padilla Saturday night in the eighth inning despite the 8-6 loss to the Boston Red Sox must have felt good for Teixeira, who denied that revenge motivated the homer.
This is surely not the end of the bad blood between both athletes as they face off tonight at 8 p.m. at Yankee Stadium with this series split one apiece.
