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Tonite the Yankees and Boston Red Sox played a game at Fenway. In the 8th inning a ball was hit into right field, rolled to the fence and when the right-fielder Gary Sheffield went to field the ball he was struck by a fan. Sheffield pushed back and now more arguments are arising about the athelete and fan contact. (Artest etc.) I am on Sheffield's side and think the fan deserved what he got. Any one see the game? Comments?
Seeing as we saw it together, you know my opinion, but I'll voice it for everyone else. I thought what the fan did was wrong. But everyone was doing it, emotions were high, the ball was right there, I'd probably wave it along too. It's all wether the "hitting" was intentional. To me, when I first saw it, and still now, it looks like he catches the brow of Gary's HAT. What Gary did next made me angry, I know he was high on emotions, but it didn't mess up the play, it would've been a triple anyways, and he's a professional player, and that holds him to a higher standard. I can see a high school player swinging at fans, but not a pro. It was a pretty good wind up too. What most angered me though was after Sheffield threw the ball in, he went back (verbally) after the fan. He should've just walked away. I totally agree that the fan should have been tossed, but I think Sheffield should have been tossed as well.
EDIT: You made two threads BC. The mods are gonna be all over you like... Gary Sheffield on a fan...
I agree with clouded sky. All of the fans were pounding on the wall, and it looked as if Sheffield (on a horrendous fielding play) ran into the fan's palm pounding the wall. It certainly was not intentional, and Sheffield's reaction was ridiculous. He let out his frustration that Tom Gordon just blew the game for the Yankees.
But, of course, it's NY-Boston, and it's a ridiculously over-publicized rivalry, especially when you can see baseball that is just as good, if not better, in other places in the country, without all of the brawls and crap.
All the commentators sure seem to be defending Sheffield. I've even heard the man's actions described as a "vicious uppercut". The man wasn't thinking, that doesn't excuse him. He was escorted off. Apparently Sheffield wasn't either and should have been taken off. If not by security, by Joe Torre, to calm him down. I really think this will get blown out of proportion, and it could have been solved if Sheffield kept his cool. He didn't, as most people probably wouldn't either, but that's what we expect. He gets paid a lot of money to play a GAME. Fans come to a game. They want to be involved. This just happened to be an unfortunate incident where the player's intensity for the game was turned against a fan. Sigh.
The real hero if this incident was the security guard who quickly jumped in to the stands and kept the two apart. He deserves a lot of thanks for keeping this situation from potentially spinning out of control.
Take care all.
Like several others here, I have to express disgust with Sheffield's behavior. However, I admit I may be inclined to dislike him based on his history of less-than-exemplary behavior and remarks.
I would agree with the Captain, however, that the security guard was the hero here. Without his intervention, the volatile situation might have erupted into something far worse.
I must agree. What bothers me now though is articles I've been reading about it.
I wonder if that had anything to do with the security gaurd, dear sir. But yes, what a wonderful job. He was there as soon as he could have been, and seperated them. Waited for help, kept them seperated. Genius.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary Sheffield
Now, I say this with a bit of jest, but Sheffield doesn't need to be taking credit for the security gaurd's work.
Sheffield tried to shove the fan, but the fan dodged it. At least that's how it looked to me.
I would expect a suspension for the way he acted. I am all for dumbass fans getting their asses kicked but that is not what it looked like to me. It looked like he just took a swing an a fan, threw the ball and then went back for more.
sorry bout the double posting, meant to edit and not make a whole new one.......
Here's an article (well, more of an editorial) from the Star-Telegram's Gil LeBreton. I don't agree with some things, but it's really funny:
Sheffield, not fan, deserves the blame
-The Yankees take the wimpy way out in the right-field corner at Fenway Park.
Oh, the outrage! The violence! The evils of $5 beer!
Before you award the Nobel Peace Prize to the Yankees' Gary Sheffield, however, let's go to the videotape.
I don't see any sucker punch. I don't see anyone throwing their beer. I don't see Red Sox season ticket holder Chris House doing anything Thursday night but failing to keep his hands to himself.
I did see, though, Sheffield almost provoke a riot by trying to lunge at House. I saw the New York Yankees rush to Sheffield's mock defense, like tattling schoolkids. And I heard a manager, who didn't have a clue what really happened down in the right-field corner, issue a condemnation that was so irresponsible, so potentially provocative, that he, too, deserves a suspension and fine.
Spare me the e-mails, Yankees fans. Your self-righteous moralizing about the incident at Fenway Park last week says more about the last-place Yankees than you think.
Since when, by the way, does Yankee Stadium set the standard or ticket holders' behavior?
Since when did manager Joe Torre become Judge Wapner?
And since when did the eternally disgruntled Gary Sheffield, a reported steroids user, earn the benefit of a doubt?
I don't know what House, the fan, was thinking. And neither do you.
Torre thinks he saw a drunken fool attack his right fielder. I think I saw - after watching the play on TiVo maybe 40 times - at leats four other fans make a swipe at the baseball as it rolled out of the Fenway corner.
To me, House appeared to want to be the fifth. but the fan to his left, the broad one wearing the red jacket, blocks his path to the wall.
So House, turned sideways, makes a feeble wave of the right hand at where he thinks or hopes the ball might bounce.
The next thing you see is Sheffield lunging at him, causing a collision that knocks a female fan over and sends beer spilling on Sheffield's left side.
Fans of the last-place Yankees, of course, are claiming to see everything from a Joe Louis uppercut to the second gunman on the grassy knoll.
Sheffield contends he was hit on the left cheek. He's now telling reporter to view the videotape and make up their own minds.
OK, done.
Players go after foul balls and collide with fans' hands, heads and elbows almost every night.
Most of the players don't whine about it and lunge at the customers.
But these are the last-place Yankees, the team that prints its own cash and plays by its own rules.
Those pinstripes must really seem tight in New York these days, after failing to win the World Series four years in a row. After making history last season by blowing a three-game ALCS lead to the hated Red Sox.
After hiking their already greedy payroll to $205 million, trying to catch Boston. And, of course, after stumbling out of the starting blocks this season and losing seven of their first 11.
And what have the last-place Yankees done about it? They've whined.
The Red Sox are tougher and feistier. The last-place Yankees have Derek Jeter, but they've otherwise become a bunch of A-Rods. And we know what a facade Alex Rodriguez is.
It's tough to stand up straight when you have so little to fall back on. The Red Sox stood tall last October. The last-place Yankees have been paper tigers, made of dollar bills.
The last-place Yankees used to win with character. But they sold their soul to the devil, and there's finally a team that's brassy enough to make New York pay.
Yankee management tried to get Jason Giambi's contract, worth $82 million, voided this spring after the first baseman reportedly told a federal grand jury that he used steroids.
Yet Sheffield reportedly told the same grand jury, investigating the BALCO case, virtually the same thing. No one at Yankees, INC., apparently tried to get out of Sheffield's contract.
A team of hired guns is really no team at all.
The Rangers learned that by signing the ultimate pop pistol, the don't-count-on-me-when-you-need-me A-Rod.
When you sign the highest-paid player, the best left-hander, the best Japanese left fielder and the best ex-Marlin pitcher, the pinstripes surely tighten, and you're expected to win.
The Yankees have become wimps. Sheffield claimed that he backed off from going into the stands and attackig House because he immediately thought about the NBA's Ron Artest incident.
Ha! Sheffield probably backed off because he wasn't sure whether any of his teammates would follow him.
Like gloating winners, the Red Sox have twisted the knife in the New York carcass - especially Rodriguez's - all winter and spring.
Boston manager Terry Francona had to tell his own players to shut up.
Whining about what did or didn't happen in the right-field corner last week is just the latest example of how the once-mighty Yankees have fallen.
They're pressing. Doubting themselves. They're paper tigers.
To me, that was no punch that the fan threw in the right-field corner in Boston.
No matter. The Yankees seem to have forgotten how to make a fist.
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So yeah. :)
I side with Torre because he's already proven time and time again that he knows what he's talking about and has more respect than any person in baseball. When even Red Sox players are saying the fan was out of line, I think you have to re-evaluate the situation.
Take care all.