Padres outfielder settles strip club lawsuit: ‘They had to ante up’

Padres outfielder Tommy Pham, standing in front of the dugout last week against the Dodgers, slowly pulled up his jersey.

There it was, a grisly 12-inch scar across his lower back, the result of being stabbed in October in the parking lot of a San Diego strip club. The stabbing, which required 200 stitches to close the wound, resulted in a two-month struggle at the plate and cruel chants from the stands, but at least he was proved right in the court of law.

Pham, who sued the nightclub for security negligence, reached a substantial out-of-court settlement that his attorneys received Thursday. “I beat them,” Pham told USA TODAY Sports. “They ended up choosing to settle with me for the max. They got crushed. All of the evidence was there, they had to ante up.”

He proved he was an innocent bystander. He didn’t have any alcohol in his system. He wasn’t an aggressor. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. “I don’t know what I could have done different,” Pham said. “The video shows more than one guy showed up at my car, and I chose to defend myself. I guess I could have run, but I don’t fear any man like that.”

While the settlement vindicated Pham, it may not compensate for lost wages from his poor start when he hits free agency.

“It was good money, but not like baseball money,” Pham said. “Now, if the (stabbing) would have hit an organ, then it would have been baseball money. Then again, I may never have played baseball again.”

Pham, who hired a live-in, personal trainer to regain his strength, still squats about 100 pounds less than he did when he was fully healthy. He normally wouldn’t lift heavy weights during the season, but he had to make an adjustment to compensate for his late training routine.

“I’m working to get back my strength, and put up my power numbers that I know I’m capable of,” says Pham, who had eight homers and 25 RBI going into Tuesday. “I can imagine by next month my power numbers will really spike.”

It has been only the last five weeks when Pham began to perform up to his standards on the field. He was hitting .182 with a .313 on-base percentage on May 21; he is up to .254 and .378.

Pham is healthy, happy, and the trash talking from the stands has been curtailed, too.

“I was getting more flak at home than on the road,” Pham said. “It is what it is. There’s a lot of liquid courage out there.

“But I’ll be fine. I’m just so appreciative of baseball, that’s why I work as hard as I do. I consider myself a very driven baseball player who wants to be better . ... When my career is said and done, I don’t want to have any regrets. This incident wasn’t about to stop me.”