Baseball fans came out in droves on social media to support Trey Mancini after insulting comments were aimed at him
On Monday, the Baltimore Orioles kicked off a series at Oriole Park at Camden Yards with the first of four games this week against the Kansas City Royals. The Orioles would end up losing Monday’s game, 3-2, doing so with star first baseman Trey Mancini getting the day off. In Sunday’s series finale against the New York Yankees, Mancini fouled a pitch off of his foot, which understandably would cause the “general soreness” that Nathan Ruiz of the Baltimore Sun reported.
The reports of Mancini’s absence from the O’s lineup on Monday caught the attention of former MLB pitcher, Kyle Farnsworth, who fired off an abstruse tweet about the situation.
So I just saw that a MLB player didn’t play today because of general soreness. Are you kidding me. It’s September. Everyone is sore. If you can’t play through soreness, you shouldn’t be playing the sport. SMH!
— Kyle Farnsworth (@24_7Farnsworth) September 6, 2021
With a combined figure of about 2,500 replies and quote tweets, fans, analysts, and players on Twitter let Farnsworth hear their displeasure. For one, many people pointed out the hypocritical thinking behind Farnsworth’s “play through soreness” attitude. In 2004 during his time with the Cubs, Farnsworth was shelved after taking the anger he felt from surrendering six runs in the ninth inning out on an electrical fan, suffering a sprain and bruising in his right knee from kicking the fan that stood in the runway between the Cubs’ clubhouse and dugout. The self-inflicted injury kept him out of play for three weeks.
A few notable people took the route of backing Mancini as well, including New York Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman. Including a handful of retweets, Stroman wanted to emphasize Mancini’s inspirational story of returning to Major League Baseball after his fight with cancer.
My man @TreyMancini is a living legend. A true role model to the youth who has battled an incredible amount of adversity. Past players with poo-poo careers/opinions need to keep it down. He’s a cancer survivor who beat the odds and is a blessing to society. Keep inspiring Trey!
— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) September 7, 2021
Since posting the original tweet on Monday night, Farnsworth has backpedaled on his insults of Mancini’s character. However, he noticeably did not apologize in the follow-up tweet he posted on Tuesday.
Let me clarify a tweet I posted yesterday. It was not directed toward Trey. His name was not mentioned in it. Cancer was not mentioned in it. It was directed to towards players who can’t play through soreness. There may be a fan that comes to see you play that day. And you arent
— Kyle Farnsworth (@24_7Farnsworth) September 7, 2021
This season, Trey Mancini has played in 128 of the Orioles’ 136 games, slashing .262/.328/.452 with 21 home runs and 66 runs batted in.