Cash has fun at Tito's expense. Again. But who's to blame?

This story was excerpted from Mandy Bell’s Guardians Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

I knew something was weird.

I walked down to the visiting clubhouse at Comerica Park on Tuesday afternoon and saw a few printed-out photos from a distance. Some were in the coaches’ room. Some were in the dining area. All of them were in areas that I could only see from afar, but I swore they looked like odd photos of Guardians manager Terry Francona. My curiosity was piqued.

At 5 p.m., it was time to chat with Francona before the series opener in Detroit. The group of local media who made the trip walked into his office and the room was lined with photos of all 30 managers across the league. But one had tape over it in the shape of an “X.”

Of course, the picture under the tape was Kevin Cash.

Many know about the ongoing hijinks between these two longtime pals. Francona has had funny “tributes” to Cash on the Progressive Field scoreboard, mocking Cash’s lackluster stats from his playing career, and Cash once retaliated by stealing Francona’s scooter (which he calls The Hog) and placing it in the middle of the field for the Rays to aim at during batting practice.

Even if the jokes aren’t always as public as those, that doesn’t mean the two still aren’t going back and forth.

So, I had to ask, what was with the tape over Cash’s face? Francona explained that when he arrived to the clubhouse that morning, there were many embarrassing photos of him plastered all over the walls.

“I took down over 50 photos of myself,” Francona said. “I think I got most of them. I tried to take the most offensive ones down.”

The Rays had just been in town. Cash knew he had a golden opportunity to leave a surprise. Apparently, Francona explained earlier in the year that he had taped over Cash’s face in the past prior to his arrival to the ballpark (I missed the trip when he explained this). So, Francona was asked, “Do you regret beginning this battle?”

“You know, I think he’s immature,” Francona said with a smirk. “I thought mine was sort of classically funny. I think he’s just a little immature.”