After Writing A Very Sad And Pathetic Article Chastising Several Padres Players, It Appears That Ken Rosenthal Was Not Allowed Into San Diego's Dugout During Game 3
No one loves to inject themselves into a story more than baseball writers, case in point is the situation going on with Ken Rosenthal and the Padres. Rosenthal is the sideline reporter for this incredible series, a series that has given us everything so far. It's one of the best playoff series we've ever seen between these two teams that really, really don't like each other. Back and forth games, big home runs, bat flips, ball tosses into the dugout, what a fun series.
But on Tuesday Ken Rosenthal wrote a piece for The Athletic highlighting every single downfall that Manny Machado has ever had in his career. Every immature moment Machado had when he was a young, immature player was highlighted and talked about by Rosenthal, typical "Many being Manny" stuff. He was digging so far down that I was expecting to read that he forgot to return a video to Blockbuster in 1996 and should be suspended by it. If you read the article you'd have thought that a ball was thrown at Rosenthal himself.
I usually like Ken too, but this article was sad and pathetic, and believe me.....I know sad and pathetic articles. As a guy who is literally covering the team during this series, what a bad and strange look for Rosenthal. How do you expect someone to cover both sides of this series while writing an article calling out the Padres and firing insults and calling Padres names. Strange.
Before the game started Rosenthal did a hit on Machado and the Padres and all the drama, but he did it in front of the Dodgers dugout. Is that weird? I'm not sure if he was in the Dodgers dugout because they were hitting first but you'd think he'd be in the Padres dugout or in front if he was talking about them. Maybe he wanted Machado in the shot behind him, who knows but it seemed weird. But as the game went on it was VERY clear that Rosenthal was not welcome in the home dugout. Not a single interview with the Padres players or manager, nothing. He didn't even appear to go over to their dugout and stayed with the Dodgers the entire game. He 100% was blackballed by the Padres and told to kick rocks. You can't call Fernando Tatis Jr. a "smiling, dancing peacock" and expect to walk into their dugout with a microphone to get some interviews, especially after Tatis Jr. did the damn thing with a massive 2-run homer early. Tatis Jr. fired back at Rosenthal by reposting a picture of his homer with a dancing peacock emoji, love that.
I'm sure it wasn't a coincidence that Rosenthal didn't give us one hit from the Padres dugout, I'm sure he was told pregame to fuck off and don't even think about it. The guy was carrying water all day for the Dodgers and Dave Roberts and expected to just waltz right into the opposing dugout to chop it up with them, they didn't let that happen. Good for them too, let him know it's not right to cover both teams and write a hit piece on the softest incident in MLB history. I like Ken too, but this was a sad piece of journalism. It was embarrassing for him, such a bad look.
You could really tell he wasn't allowed to talk to any Padres because AFTER San Diego put up 6 in the 2nd inning including a monster home run by the peacock himself, Rosenthal went to interview DAVE ROBERTS, MANAGER OF THE DODGERS. In what world is a team scoring 6 runs in an inning and you interview the other team? That doesn't happen. Rosenthal getting quotes from Roberts after his team dry humped the ball all around the diamond while the Padres dugout is a party, yeah that makes sense. This whole incident was a non-factor and then Rosenthal had to dip the pen and call out Padres players, next thing you know he's not in their dugout all night. Good on the Padres for not putting up with that, stay over there in that dugout Kenny. It's clear San Diego wanted nothing to do with him.