OMG! A Boston Fan just killed Terri Schiavo!

[joeybee12]

Why am I the first to say this? And almost a day later?

Went to bed early last night (I'm jet-lagged from my trip to Europe) and missed the game. This Red Sox fan thinks that fan was a jerk, and Sheffield seems fairly blameless.

But this doesn't mean all Red Sox fans are thugs, nor does it mean all Yankee fans are saints.

BTW, Europe was great--and you baseball fanatics have absolutely nothing on the fanaticism of all of Europe for what they call "football." They go nust over it--every single one of them.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. This Red Sox fan thinks everyone's overreacted.

If he was really trying to hit Sheffield, that was a pretty friggin lame attempt. Looked like he was getting the ball to me. Still not going to absolve him for that though - fans need to learn to keep their goddamn hands inside the wall. Fan interference has been a problem plaguing baseball for years now, and they need to put up a plexiglass wall. But the faux outrage is absolutely ridiculous.

[sniffa]

2. no it's not

in fact, when i was waLking to get some coffee, someone bumped into my hat.. so i took a swing at her.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

4. I hope you put her down!

She probably had it coming to her...

[joeybee12]

5. Why didn't you take out your gun and wing her?

You must be mellowing!;-)

[joeybee12]

3. Like I said, I didn't see it--and could just be that it is over-reaction..

...the media wants to play up the Boston-New York rivalry.

[HuckleB]

6. I've finally watched the video.

Looks to me like the "swipe" was incredibly overblown, as the fan seems to have been watching the runners, without really paying attention to Sheffield. The "swipe" seems to have been a sort of jumping for joy, pumping of the fist kind of thing. It definitely doesn't look like he was paying attention to Sheffield in order to do anything to him.

What boggles my mind is the lack of concentration in regard to getting to the ball by Sheffield. This guy makes big bucks, yet I've seen high school kids maintain their focus through far more difficult circumstances. And, while he did "hold back" in the end. He didn't hold his composure, and he shouldn't feign as if he did.

(On edit: Further, ballplayers today face little in the way of verbal abuse, or even physical danger, compared to their predecessors over the past century, yet they seem to whine a great deal more, and they seem to be more apt to react physically, as we saw with Sheffield last night. I don't excuse the fan's behavior and stupidity, but I find the response of some of the ballplayers to be simply childish, as well.)

Now the fan who threw the beer is definitely in the wrong. Not sure why that fan didn't get the boot too. (On edit: Apparently there is some controversy about whether a beer was thrown at all.)

Welcome back!

[MaineDem]

14. The guy interfered with the play

He should have been - and was - removed from the game.

All I saw last night was the guy with the beer. This morning I saw the guy in question. Security was there right away and he was escorted out. Those are the rules and it's a done deal.

Was it an intentional swipe at Sheff? I certainly don't know. Was the guy wrong? Absolutely! Has it been overblown here? I tend to think so.

it's not like the guy and his son who rushed the First Base coach in - where? Chicago? - a few years ago.

This rivalry is a fantastic one between two great teams. I've been living through this for over 40 years and people are still discussing shit that happened eons ago.

[HuckleB]

17. Yeah, that was at a White Sox game.

I'm definitely of the opinion that it's been overblown, by the press, by Sheffield, by Torre, and by a few DU Yankee fans. And I am of a mind that feels the sweeping accusations made by those Yankee fans about an entire population of fellow fans were without class and without warrant, and that the folks accused by them are deserving of an apology.

Unfortunately, it looks like it will be days before the oxygen returns the heads of the accusing generalizers, and even then I suspect pride will hold sway.

And, yeah, I can appreciate a great rivalry. I don't even like football much, but I do enjoy the Packers-Bears, and the way fans argue decades old incidents, even from years when they both sucked. Still, this seems more like a non-incident compared to most.

[joeybee12]

20. Thanks for the welcome back...and it looks like this issue probably

won't die anytime soon!

All I know is that I need a nap--this jet lag is for the birds!

[OneBlueSky]

7. and Cardinal Law is covering it up! . . . n/t

.

[Yavin4]

8. Okay, I'm Going To Explain This One More Time

and I want you to use your elementary school reading comprehension to understand. That idiot fan reached over into fair territory and interferred with the game. While he was reaching over, he hit Sheffield in the face. Sheffield has no idea whether that fan was deliberately trying to hit him or just going for the ball. Either way, the fan was dead wrong, and Sheffield reacted in a restrained manner.

I'd like to see some of you stand out there in the outfield, take insults all night long, and then act graciously when a fan smacks you across the nose while you're doing your job.

[sniffa]

9. ok, i'm going to mock you one more time

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=215x12576#12804

[Yavin4]

11. So sniffa

Let me come to your job, shout insults at you for three hours, and then let me take a swing across your face. And then we'll see just how much of a gentleman you are about it.

[sniffa]

12. pLease do

we'LL see what happens.

hopefuLLy, i'm making miLLions of doLLars for my occupation.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. That's My Take

It looked to me like the guy was trying to flip Sheffield's hat off. It's hard to tell, but it wasn't a punch, or even a slap. It appears to me the guy might have been going for the bill of the cap, and clipped the face instead.

It's not the rape of Nanjing, but the guy was a jerk for doing it. Keep your hands to yourself is a good policy at all time, not just when you've got front row seats.

The Professor

[WilliamPitt]

13. That actually makes more sense

than some of the stuff that was getting sprayed around here. No mention in your post of the fan "attacking" Sheff, which was the howl du jour last night.

Yes, the fan should have not interfered with the game. He got tossed because of it. But there was no 'deliberate attack.'

That having been said, we enter dangerous (Artest) terrirory when it becomes forgiveable for players to attack fans in the stands. The fan contact with Sheff was stupid, but not deliberate. Sheff's contact with the fan (and the woman next to him who got knocked over) was.

[Yavin4]

15. Answer Me This

How was Sheffield supposed to know that it wasn't deliberate? How? In the heat of that moment, how was Sheffield supposed to determine that the punch to his face was an accident?

Again, let me come to your job, insult you all day long, and then punch you in the face, and we'll see how reasonable you respond.

[sniffa]

16. *snort*

c'mon, go for it.

[HuckleB]

18. I'm insulted at my job all the time. And I've been attacked.

But I've never reacted as Sheffield did.

I think it's about basic professionalism and dignity, but maybe I'm wrong.

[WilliamPitt]

19. I hear you

But it is tough to compare having someone come into a cubicle in an office building to a guy surrounded by 34,000 screaming fans on a playing field. Someone comes into a cubicle with ominous intent, there could be justification for sticking a letter-opener in their eye. That's straight self-defense.

But Sheff has been playing ball for a while, and you act like he should be shocked, shocked! that a fan might reach for a ball or otherwise interfere with play.

It happens every day in every baseball game, but this time there was contact. I can understand Sheff being freaked and pissed, but I can't understand your trying to justify why violence against the fan might be justified.

Imagine if that security guard hand't gotten in there. Odds were decent that Shef would have laid out that fan, and we're in Artest Terrirory again, another black eye for baseball perpetrated by one of the central figures in the other (Balco) black eye.

On edit: The "insult you all day long" thing is bogus. Please, Yavin.

One, Yankee fans are notorious for being the best insulters in any park. Hell, they used to be famous for throwing batteries at people.

Two, if you cannot take heckling at the major league level, go back to single-A and cry to your mommy.

[Moderator]

21. Locking

You may re-post without the inappropriate headline.