The 2021 World Series begins Tuesday night, and there’s perhaps a little tension in the Giants’ locker room because of it?
You see, wide receiver Dante Pettis is the son of Houston Astros third base coach Gary Pettis, so he’s heavily invested over what will unfold over the next five to 10 days. But in the same receiver room as him is a Georgia boy in Darius Slayton, who isn’t a huge baseball fan but is rooting for his hometown Atlanta Braves.
“It has kind of came up recently because obviously the Astros are in the World Series and I'm from Georgia, so I've kind of hopped on the bandwagon over the past two weeks and just rode the wave,” Slayton told the media on Monday. “We've kind of had a little back and forth over the last few weeks.”
Slayton and Pettis are good friends, but Slayton, who grew up in the northeastern Atlanta suburb of Norcross, wasn’t even born when the Braves last won the Fall Classic in 1995, or even when the Yankees and Braves met in the 1996 World Series that ended in the Bronx 25 years ago Tuesday night.
Dante, meanwhile, was born in the fall of 1995 – five days before those ’95 Braves won it all – while his dad was a coach with the now-Los Angeles Angels, and he grew up outside the Los Angeles area. So, realistically, Slayton’s Braves have already beaten the Pettis’ once already, after taking out the Dodgers in the NLCS.
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So, will there be a little friendly wager on the big finale?
“Not yet, but obviously you know I'll be rooting for my home team and obviously he'll be rooting for his family, so I guess we'll see,” Slayton smiled.
Winner gets to throw the next pass to Daniel Jones?
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