These days in baseball, everyone's attention is on the 2016 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. That's too bad, because Friday night featured a sparking of blood rivals in addition to Game 3 -- that's right, we're talking about the band Smash Mouth and the Oakland Athletics.
The drama started innocently enough -- John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle tweeted about Coco Crisp going from benched by the A's to plating the go-ahead run for the Indians in the World Series. That's when Smash Mouth decided to take a shot. The A's did not react kindly to such aggression:
@smashmouth Insulted by Smash Mouth? #Pfftpic.twitter.com/SM1Q7CcvnF
— Oakland Athletics (@Athletics) October 29, 2016
From there, your usual band-versus-team ruckus played out, with both sides trading barbs about each other's irrelevancy and/or incompetence:
@smashmouth Up late desperately tweeting for relevancy? Hey now, that's not very All-Star of you.
— Oakland Athletics (@Athletics) October 29, 2016
A's reliever Sean Doolittle, who was himself an All-Star in 2014, even got involved, sprinkling in the names of some of Smash Mouth's old hits and clearly winning the day:
@smashmouth@Athletics hey hey guys cmon. Why Can't We Be Friends? last year was rough but I'm A Believer.
— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) October 29, 2016
And then, lastly, for now anyway, the A's made like Doolittle has throughout his career, closing this one out with verve:
@smashmouth@whatwouldDOOdo Guess you've got it all figured out. Except how to make a hit since 1999.
— Oakland Athletics (@Athletics) October 29, 2016
@smashmouth@510ProSports@whatwouldDOOdo And you have no fans. They all graduated college 18 years ago and grew up. Do the same.
— Oakland Athletics (@Athletics) October 29, 2016
@NikJamTheMan@smashmouth One song on repeat for 13 minutes? No thanks.
— Oakland Athletics (@Athletics) October 29, 2016
Things didn't actually stop there -- Smash Mouth kept going -- but the A's official account offered no more retorts. Still, the two sides had everyone enthused, even hours and hours later:
Highlight of the SmA'sh Mouth feud was Doolittle making a friendly your-song-titles joke and S.M. seeming to miss it https://t.co/h8JmKg1Gqs
— Sam Miller (@SamMillerBB) October 29, 2016
It's worth noting Smash Mouth -- or at least whichever member runs the account -- is known to be into the San Francisco Giants, so some animosity toward the A's is to be expected.
Nonetheless, here's hoping the two sides can mend their relationship. Because, jeez, what the world needs right now is "You might as well be walking on Sonny Gray" T-shirt night.