The Los Angeles Dodgers may not have won the World Series in 2019, but their season was still filled with a ton of memorable moments en route to winning a franchise-record 106 games.
Perhaps the most notable during the regular season came on June 9 when Max Muncy hit a towering home run off Madison Bumgarner, who of course at the time was still a member of the San Francisco Giants. Muncy’s majestic drive sailed over the wall in right field and carried into McCovey Cove.
Muncy took a quick second to admire his shot and did his typical bat drop, which Bumgarner took exception with. That led to a shouting match between the two as Muncy rounded the bases, and it included him telling Bumgarner that if he didn’t like it then he should “go get it out of the ocean.”
Bumgarner is known for trying to police the game for things such as bat flips, so the Dodgers decided to have some fun with the incident by wearing “go get it out of the ocean” t-shirts, which drew national media attention.
Anyone who is familiar with Muncy knows that he is one of the nicest and most humble players in the league. He was released by the Oakland Athletics a few years ago and caught on with the Dodgers on a Minor League deal, eventually working his way to becoming a Major League All-Star in 2019.
While the feud with Bumgarner was fun and largely led laughs throughout the sport, Muncy recently admitted he did not like the attention he got because of it, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“The Bumgarner thing last year — I had never been in that situation, getting national attention, and I didn’t really like it,” he said. “That’s not my personality. I’m the guy you notice on the field, but don’t hear on the field.”
Muncy may want the attention to go away, but it likely won’t be any time soon. The Dodgers planned to give away a bobblehead of the moment during the team’s Opening Series with the Giants, though the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic didn’t allow for that March 28 game to be played.
Bumgarner would not have been in attendance for that, anyhow, after leaving the Giants in free agency this past offseason. He did sign a five-year contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks though, so Muncy and the Dodgers will still be seeing plenty of him in 2020 and beyond.
The next opportunity for Muncy may be to hit a home run off Bumgarner into the pool at Chase Field.
Have you subscribed to our YouTube channel? It’s the best way to watch player interviews, exclusive coverage from events and more!
