The "Angel of Fenway" Who Threw The HR Ball Back Last Night Is Now Being Crucified By Baseball Purists And Being Called A Racist To Boot
NBC – I couldn’t believe what I saw after Alex Avila‘s home run last night. A fan in the right field stands ripped the home run ball out of the hands of the woman who came up with it and threw it back on the field.Thankfully, not long after it happened, word started to circulate that the fan was ejected from Fenway. Which, good. He’s lucky that he wasn’t arrested and charged with assault & battery. I mean, there’s no effective difference between him taking the ball from the woman’s hands and throwing it like that than taking her cell phone or something.
But it gets worse! Jeff Passan of Yahoo! spoke to fans in the section where this took place and reports that, before he was ejected, the fan taunted a black Tigers fan sitting nearby all game with racial slurs, including calling him “Trayvon Martin” and ”Prince Fielder‘s crackhead brother.” He also told another black Tigers fan to “go back to the ghetto.” This was confirmed by several fans sitting in that section. Man, what an utter piece of garbage.
Has there ever been a bigger overreaction to anything in the history of earth than this guy’s take on the “Angel of Fenway” throwing that ball back last night? Trying to insinuate that it was the same thing as stealing her cell phone? That it was assault and battery. Umm no it’s not. This wasn’t preplanned. This guy wasn’t taking it for himself. It was pure instinct. He did what he thought was right in the heat of the moment. He was making a point. At worst it was a dickhead move. At best he won the game. But to start comparing it to a real crime is so far off the reservation crazy that it’s mind boggling.
As a sidenote the Angel of Fenway is also getting crucified for supposedly taunting a Tigers fan in the bleachers with racist slurs. Obviously I’m not going to defend that, but I’m not sure calling a guy wearing a Prince Fielder shirt Prince Fielder’s crackhead brother is racist. I also don’t think telling a Tigers fan to go back to the ghetto is racist. I mean Detroit is bankrupt after all. You could say that to a white guy or a black guy. Now I probably wouldn’t say the Travon Martin thing, but either way this is being blown way out of proportion. I went to Game 1 and the most obnoxious fan in my section was a Tigers fan who eventually got kicked out. The point is if you sit in the bleachers on a Sunday Night when people have been drinking all day and wear Tiger clothing people are going to heckle you. That kind of comes with the territory. I don’t condone it. I wouldn’t do it, but is anything this guy said really front page news? Fuck no. Happens in every stadium every single night game everywhere.