New York Yankees players insist they are all family and sometimes families fight. Joba Chamberlain learned that lesson the hard way. The middle reliever has learned to never pick a fight with the older brother of the family after he and closer Mariano Rivera got into a heat exchange after a press conference.
The incident took place in the dugout after Saturday's game with the Kansas City Royals. Rivera was conducting an interview about meeting with the family of a boy who was killed in an airport accident. Chamberlain was doing some chatting nearby and Rivera asked him to be quiet so he could hear questions being asked.
Chamberlain did not take too well to being shushed by the veteran. He was trying to talk to his family and claimed Rivera does this to him every day.
"Don't ever shush me again," Chamberlain said to Rivera after his interview was over.
Rivera appeared to try and laugh off the exchange but Chamberlain did not find any of it very funny. The pitcher is already involved in an uphill climb with the Yankees and a public spat with their most prized possession is not helping his cause. When given the chance to apologize for his actions, Chamberlain declined.
"There's no need to apologize. For what? It's over with. It's done. It's really not an issue in the first place," Chamberlain told reporters.
The Yankees PR team did their best to minimize the media's attention over the heated exchange. They tweeted out a photo of the two pitchers smiling with their arms draped over one another. Manager Joe Girardi downplayed the incident even more, stressing that everything is good between the two players.
"I think when you look at situations that happen, if people could do things differently, sometimes they would do it differently. Sometimes things just happen and you kiss and make up and go on," Girardi said.
Rivera likened the incident to two brothers fighting with another. The veteran did stress that he believed Chamberlain was a "good kid." Currently sitting on the 15-day disabled list, Chamberlain has an oblique strain but is traveling with the team between rehab stints.
