Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman John Nogowski and New York Mets right-handed starter Marcus Stroman got into a verbal altercation that spurred a benches-clearing incident between the teams during the fifth inning of Friday night’s contest.
Nogowski seemingly took exception to Stroman’s reaction following a lineout, so he let him hear about it. Stroman lept in celebration after realizing first baseman Pete Alonso had made a clean grab to end the frame.
The two continued to talk to each other during the top of the sixth inning with Stroman stationed in the Mets dugout and Nogowski at his first-base position.
Postgame, Stroman had more to say.
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“He’s just a clown,” Stroman said. “[Mets reliever] Drew Smith told me was a clown. He’s a clown. He knows I wasn’t talking any s— to him. You can look at the video: I put my head down and looked right at our dugout, literally put my head down and started walking to the dugout, and he proceeded to run his mouth.”
“I’ll never let anyone talk down on me, no man,” he added. “I’m not scared of anybody.”
On Twitter, Stroman responded to a fan who questioned why so many Mets fans hate him so much.
Stroman replied: “They don’t dislike me for my passion. They dislike me because I’m an African-American with passion who will never concede to the norm. That’s the truth!”
“Most of them are wearing disguises anyway and waiting for an opportunity to show their true colors. It’s all too familiar and comical to me at this point. I just feel bad for their families because I know that energy is something nobody wants to be around!”
One guy who stated he was a fan quickly turned into his true self when he told Stroman to go eat fried chicken.
“Was a fan, not anymore because of your comment Marcus. Go eat your fried chicken”
