The Cleveland Guardians‘ Josh Naylor caught a lot of flack after his rock-the-baby homerun trot against the New York Yankees in game 4 of the ALDS Sunday night. Naylor hit the homerun off of Gerrit Cole and during his trot, he called Cole his “son” as he rounded the bases.
Yankee fans nor players weren’t pleased with Naylor and let him have it in game 5 chanting “who’s your daddy” as the Yankees took the series 5-1, to move on to the American League Championship Series.
But Naylor took what Yankee fans had to say about him in stride, in fact, he didn’t take it personally at all.
He seemed to enjoy it, he told reporters afterward that it was “like a dream come true” and “sick” to have that chant circulating through Yankee Stadium.
Josh Naylor was a good sport re: his Yankee Stadium reception:
"That was so sick. That was honestly like a dream come true as a kid; playing in an environment like this where they've got diehard fans, it's cool … The fact I got that going thru the whole stadium, that was sick"
— Coley Harvey (@ColeyHarvey) October 19, 2022
New York fans are known to let opposing players have it, especially when they feel that a player is a villain. Back in the 2021 NBA playoffs, the Atlanta Hawks faced the favored New York Knicks.
The Hawks Trae Young had a terrific series against the Knicks and was heckled by Knick fans, which Young enjoyed. He ate up all the attention that he received from Knick fans and to this day, is still hated by them. So Naylor has joined an elite group of athletes that the city of New York despises.
About Stacey Mickles
Stacey is a 1995 graduate of the University of Alabama who has previously worked for other publications such as Sportskeeda and Saturday Down South.