Max Muncy has never been shy about talking trash, but his most famous line came with a backstory that’s even better than the one-liner itself. The Dodgers infielder appeared on Mookie Betts’ podcast recently and broke down what really happened the night he told Madison Bumgarner to go fish his home run out of McCovey Cove.
It started before Muncy even stepped into the box. Kiké Hernandez led off that game against Bumgarner, and Muncy says Hernandez was hitting something like .800 off the Giants lefty. So the at-bat everyone remembers almost didn’t happen the way it did.
First pitch of the game, Bumgarner throws one six inches off the plate. Ball. He immediately starts screaming at the umpire. Muncy says Bumgarner told the ump he was going to need that pitch later. That was his whole deal — bully the ump into a bigger zone, and it worked more often than not. Next pitch, same spot, called a strike. Classic Bumgarner.
Then Muncy steps in. Bumgarner tried to go fastball away, missed his spot, and left it up and in. Muncy turned on it. In his words: “We can be real, I blasted it.” The ball landed in the water beyond right field at Oracle Park.
But Bumgarner wasn’t done. He started yelling at Muncy as he ran to first, telling him he shouldn’t watch the ball, he should run. Muncy waved him off. As he rounded first, Bumgarner kept coming toward him, still yelling. So Muncy told him to come get some if he wanted it. He admits Bumgarner is way bigger and probably would have pummeled him.
Then as he hit third base, the line hit him. He’d just hit a ball into the bay. So he told Bumgarner to go get it out of the ocean. There might have been something about swim trunks in there too. He can’t remember exactly. But when he got back to the dugout, Clayton Kershaw asked what he said. Muncy told him, and Kershaw cracked up.
It was just another moment in one of baseball’s best rivalries. Bumgarner is retired now. Muncy is still mashing for the Dodgers. And that story only gets better every time he tells it.
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