Who said the Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees rivalry is dead?
Red Sox legend David Ortiz had some harsh remarks for Mike Fiers on Thursday, calling the former Astros pitcher a "snitch" for blowing the whistle on Houston's illegal sign-stealing operation after winning the 2017 World Series with the club.
Not everyone agreed with Ortiz's take, though -- including former Yankees slugger and current ESPN analyst Mark Teixera, who sounded off on Big Papi during Monday's episode of "Get Up!"
“Players that are clean, whether it was during the steroid era or anybody that wasn’t on the Astros -- they want these guys outed. They want the Astros punished," Teixeira said.
"So, for David Ortiz or Pedro Martinez or anybody — interesting that it’s two Boston players and Boston is actually a part of this investigation, as well — so I think there’s some meaning behind that it’s two Red Sox players saying it."
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That's an eye-opening line from Teixeira, who seems to be implying that Ortiz and Martinez are trying to deflect from Major League Baseball's investigation into the 2018 Red Sox, that the Boston legends don't have a leg to stand on given their own club's alleged cheating.
Teixeira also wasn't a fan of Ortiz's word choice.
"There are very few people out there that really even use the word ‘snitch’ and ‘rat’ anymore, anyway," Teixeira said. "This isn’t Goodfellas. This is the real world. In the real world, you want bad things brought to light."
Ortiz and Martinez had more of an issue with when Fiers blew the whistle, suggesting that he should have went public earlier to nip Houston's cheating in the bud.
Teixeira wasn't buying that argument, though, suggesting Fiers would have been powerless to stop the Astros' sign-stealing operation even if he had spoken up at the time.
"He could’ve said something every single day," Teixeira said. " ... That’s what all the Astros pitchers are basically saying: 'Hey, I didn’t like it, but I had no control over it.' "
