Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips is typically all smiles when the cameras are on him, but before last night’s game against the Cardinals — and just outside the frame of a video recorded by a St. Louis-area radio station — Phillips let the expletives fly during a tirade against Enquirer reporter C. Trent Rosecrans, who dared to accurately report Phillips’ shitty on-base percentage in response to Phillips asking to bat higher in the lineup.
The incident earned a minute-long segment on SportsCenter and responses from multiple national baseball writers.
Phillips was moved to the second spot in the batting order for that night’s game — he has batted fourth most of the year and ranks third in the National League in RBI. In a tweet, Rosecrans pointed out that Phillips’ .310 on-base percentage is lower than the .320 of the guy he replaced in the two-spot in the team’s lineup.
Phillips reportedly went off on Rosecrans in the clubhouse and then continued the tirade during the media session with Baker. Phillips, who is off camera in the video, interrupts the interview with Baker, calling out “fat motherfucker on the end” and saying to Baker: “Tell him you’ll have me bat eighth if you’re worried about my on-base percentage. Fat motherfucker, make him happy.”
Phillips says to Rosecrans, “I’m tired of you talking that negative bullshit about my team, dog. I found out your Twitter name motherfucker, that’s a wrap.”
Rosecrans responds, “Wow, took you how many years?”
Dusty Baker laughed and then said, “I ain’t in this; it’s between you and him.”
Rosecrans says, “It’s between him and him.”
The Enquirer posted a blog in response to the incident before the game was over. Enquirer sports editor Angel Rodriguez wrote, “While we are disappointed in Phillips’ reaction, we understand it is a pennant race and emotions are high during a crucial series with a heated rival. This isn’t the first time a player has lost his temper in response to a reporter’s questions and it won’t be the last. It is part of covering the team day-in day-out.”
In response to an outpouring of support on Facebook, Rosecrans wrote that this kind of thing isn’t really new to the world of sports coverage but thanked people for the support.
Rosecrans was the Reds beat writer for the Cincinnati Post and has reported for local radio stations and websites, in addition to spending most of 2012 writing a weekly sports column for CityBeat. He is a 10-year member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
The full video can be seen below:
This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2013.