Alana Rizzo on High Heat. Alana Rizzo on High Heat.

The highly favored Atlanta Braves got knocked out by the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS in Game 4 on Thursday night, completing a 4-0 sweep of lower seeds in the second round of the Major League Baseball postseason. While the Phillies benefitted from some red-hot hitting from Nick Castellanos, it was the drama happening inside the Braves clubhouse that improbably became the main story of the series.

To get you caught up, Jake Mintz of Fox Sports reported comments from Braves shortstop Orlando Arcia taunting Bryce Harper after Atlanta’s Game 2 victory. That led to Harper responding in kind after hitting a home run in a Game 3 win. The Braves took umbrage with Mintz reporting a comment that was not said during a formal interview or press session, but occurred (obviously) with members of the media within earshot. It all culminated when MLB Network’s Alanna Rizzo went on a blistering rant during Thursday’s episode of High Heat against Mintz calling him a ‘jackoff’ and basically accusing him of parachuting in for the postseason and publishing gossip for clicks.

After that video went viral, scores of people working in national and local baseball media came out to defend Mintz, the job he does covering the sport year round, and clapped back at Rizzo’s declaration that what’s said in the MLB clubhouse must stay in the MLB clubhouse.

In fact, people from all around sports media and not just the folks that cover baseball chimed in to defend Mintz from Russo’s barbs and stick up for his reporting.

https://twitter.com/mikesisak/status/1712685983055937735

Finally, Chelsea Janes, baseball writer for the Washington Post, also shared more about Arcia’s original quotes stating that she was in the clubhouse and heard the comments as well. In fact, she said Arcia knew that his comments were being captured by media members present in the locker room.

While there were some tweets and voices in support of Rizzo’s word, the vast majority of sports media defended Mintz’s right to report on Arcia’s taunt of Bryce Harper in the Braves locker room. The fact that Rizzo went off to such a profoundly personal degree against his reporting on such an innocuous thing was truly stunning. Given the reaction of sports media, it appears as if journalists are going to continue to do their jobs and not treat MLB clubhouses as though they are some kind of secret society. Next, maybe we can do something about hockey teams being so weird about the logos on the floor of their locker rooms.