NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Despite winning just 10 games in 2018, New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom was named the National League's best pitcher, but there was at least one detractor: John Maffei of the San Diego Union Tribune.
DeGrom won with the fewest wins ever by a Cy Young Award-winning starter. He hauled in 29 first-place votes and 207 points. The other first-place vote -- from Maffei -- went to Washington's Max Scherzer.
Maffei got into a brief, heated exchange before hanging up on WFAN's Steve Somers on Wednesday night.
"John, can you look at yourself in the mirror?" Somers asked.
"Can I? Absolutely," Maffei said.
"No. No, no, no. You're looking for 15 minutes of fame and attention," Somers shot back.
That's when Maffei cut the conversation short.
"Steve, this interview is over. Thank you, goodbye," he said before hanging up.
Somers sounded baffled by Maffei's ire at the line of questioning.
“Well, one of my better interviews. Here’s the thing. Where’s this guy’s sense of humor, taking a little bit too seriously here, don’t you think?" he said, "He didn’t have much tolerance. He didn’t have much patience. And certainly no sense of humor, that’s for sure. We had planned to have some fun with him.”
In his first season after chopping off his distinctive long hair, deGrom cut down hitters from start to finish despite little help from teammates. He had a 1.70 ERA, the lowest in the NL since Zack Greinke's 1.66 mark in 2015.