Josh Naylor, the Guardians’ designated hitter, had to chew his insult of Gerrit Cole on Tuesday. Fans at Yankee Stadium sang “Who’s Your Daddy?” and Gleyber Torres replied with an epic taunt to his ridiculous celebration of a Game 4 home run.
There was an outpouring of criticism after Josh Naylor made a rock-the-baby gesture after hitting a solo home run against the New York Yankees on Sunday. It was aimed at Cole, who is going to have his second child soon. He also called pitcher Cole his “son” during Game 4 of the American League Division Series, which his team lost. Two days later, it was the other way around.
When Naylor struck out in his first at-bat of Game 5, the crowd at Yankee Stadium started chanting the old song “Who’s Your Daddy?”
As the second baseman caught the last out of the game, Gleyber Torres finished the insult by copying Naylor’s Game 4 gesture.
“It was disrespectful,” Torres told reporters after the game. “Not only to Cole but the whole team. We got a little revenge.”
The Bronx fans have been using this chant for a long time, but they hadn’t done it in a while. In 2004, Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez was the first to face it. In a press meet after his team lost a game 6-4 in New York, the pitcher called the Yankees “daddies.”
“What can I say? I just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddies,” Martinez famously told reporters after that game.
He was trying to be a good sportsperson and compliment his opponents, but after that, every time he pitched at Yankee Stadium, fans would yell, “Who’s your daddy?” Now, it looks like Naylor has brought the old chant back.
On Tuesday, after the first two innings, the Yankees gained a 4-0 lead and went on to win 5-1. They’ll now hurry to Houston for the AL Championship Series, which starts Wednesday at 7:37 p.m. ET and is against the Astros.
Are the fans right in replying to the insulting behavior of Naylor?
