There are words you can’t say all the time. And if it were up to San Diego Padres All-Star Manny Machado, “expectations” would be added to the list.
The 49-46 San Diego Padres will have five players representing their team in the MLB All-Star Game next week, which is good for third most in the league behind the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers. Considering San Diego’s All-Stars, a reporter asked Machado if their talent amplifies the team’s expectations this season.
Manny Machado was asked about playoff expectations for the Padres, especially with them having 5 All-Stars: pic.twitter.com/7YWZ2VspO3
— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) July 9, 2024
“I don’t like the word ‘expectations,’” Machado said. “That’s something people always like to put out there is expectations. I mean, I think we expect to go out there and win every single day.”
Machado proceeded to offer a very diplomatic answer, featuring jargon like “We gotta go out there and play our game…play well…day in and day out every single night…for the whole year.” If Machado stopped there, the answer would have been sufficiently boring enough to avoid making any news. But Machado accidentally said the word “expectations,” and he did not like it.
“I think that’s the expectations we have in here as a group is to do that,” Machado said before realizing his blunder. “Expectations. Look at that. You say it and now I gotta say it. That’s why I don’t like the word, cause now you’re putting it in my mouth. I didn’t say the word, you’re putting it in my mouth.
“That’s why I don’t like words. That’s why you guys always put us in these situations, and then we get caught, and then now I’m all over social media because you put something in my mouth which I didn’t say and now I just keep repeating ‘expectations.’ No, we just gotta go out there and compete.”
Machado got caught and now he’s on social media, all because a reporter led him down the path of using a word as shocking as “expectations.” The gall. In reality, if Machado wasn’t so worried about getting caught, no one would have even noticed he was caught. Because Machado might be the only person who thinks “expectations” belongs on that list of words you can’t say.
