Guardians catcher gives Chris Rose inside look at Yankees fan brawl

Though the news cycle has moved on, last weekend’s nastiness at Yankee Stadium deserves a second look — preferably an inside one from someone who was very much involved in the Guardians vs Yankees (fans only) melee.

Catcher Austin Hedges, who drilled the two-run shot off Chad Green that nearly stole Saturday’s game for the road team, appeared on the Jomboy Media podcast The Chris Rose Rotation this week to give the inside dish to the Cleveland fan host (who else?).

According to a blindsided Hedges, the situation developed so quickly after Gleyber Torres’ walk-off single (and while he had his head down walking back to the dugout) that the melee caught him off guard entirely.

Of course — and Yankee fans will be proud to hear this — the animosity did not extend from the bleachers to the dugout.

Per Hedges, who was proud of his team and the resolve they showed, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gerrit Cole and Co. went above and beyond what we saw as they sprinted towards the right-field seats to contain the situation.

The Yankees extended a genuine olive branch to the Guardians players, letting them know they’d be safe the next day and offering to help.

Yankees players helped Austin Hedges, Guardians after fan brawl

Hedges really struck the potential game-winner with two outs and a 3-2 count in the eighth, spent an inning as the hero, then lived long enough to see his team become the villain.

But you won’t see any vitriol coming from the Yankees themselves, as Hedges detailed on the podcast:

I mean, we borderline beat the Yankees out onto the field when they won the game. I’ve never seen anything like it.(Anthony) Rizzo, (Giancarlo) Stanton, (Aaron) Judge, Gerrit Cole – they’re all like: Hey, like we got you. We got you. Sent out some of the nicest texts afterwards, a bunch of their guys, apologizing like: We want to make sure you guys feel safe the next day. We’re gonna get extra security blah, blah, blah. It was really coolIt was too bad you know that that happened with the fans, but it was cool to see you know, kind of both sides. Where like hey, you know, we got, I mean — player safety is really important in this situation. because that type of stuff can be nasty.

And, according to Hedges, Anthony Rizzo specifically went the extra mile in comforting the injured Steven Kwan, leaving the outfielder somewhat star struck and saying, “Thank you, Mr. Rizzo!”

The full podcast is below, where Hedges opens up further on the rowdiness, the Guardians’ start and the unique challenges of managing a whole-new game-calling system in 2022.

Could Myles Straw eventually become a guest on the player-copiloted podcast to really put the exclamation point on this whole situation?!

Don’t hold your breath.

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