Pederson hopes Giants fans go easy on Pham

Giants outfielder Joc Pederson said Thursday he hopes fans in San Francisco won’t take it too far when Cincinnati comes to Oracle Park and Tommy Pham is playing outfield for the Reds.

The Giants will host the Reds in a three-game series that begins Friday night.

Pham slapped Pederson in the face over a fantasy football dispute three weeks ago in Cincinnati before a game. Pham served a three-game suspension.

“It’s an unfortunate incident, and I feel like we’ve moved past it,” Pederson said. “It was an off-field issue, handled and moved on. It’s in the rearview mirror.”

Pederson added he has had no contact with Pham since the incident.

“I think our fans are classy and respectful,” Pederson told reporters, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “There’s a respect level that needs to be held up, and when you see games in New York or wherever they were where they start throwing stuff on the field that is not OK and doesn’t help any situation. It makes it so much worse. So just keep it respectful.”

Last month, Pederson had said he was accused of cheating for the way he had maneuvered the big-money fantasy league’s injured reserve spot. Pham had said the dispute stemmed from an old text sent by Pederson to the league’s group chat in which he disrespected his teammates on the San Diego Padres, for whom he played last season.

Pham told The Athletic last month that there was a $10,000 entry fee for the 12-team league and the last-place team had to pay an additional $10,000. Pham dropped out of the league when he was in second place, he told The Athletic.

Pham told reporters last month that one person could have prevented it all — their fantasy league’s commissioner, Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout, whom he called “the worst commissioner in fantasy sports because he allowed a lot of (stuff) to go on, and he could’ve solved it all.”

Trout said on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball during a game between the Angels and New York Mets earlier this month that this was the first year of the league, which used ESPN’s fantasy site, and that Houston Astros third baseman Alex Bregman won the league.

He quipped that it was a “legendary football league right there” that is “probably getting another commissioner.”

“There’s definitely a waiting list now. Everybody is calling me, texting me, saying, ‘Hey what’s up with this league?’ I think we got something brewing for next football season. We got a couple of guys,” Trout said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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