You’re a fool, and part of what’s wrong with the world.
But mostly just a fool.
The fuckwicket isn’t just a fuckwicket, he acted with a reckless disregard for the safety of the kid or his mother. Were that my son, I’d have demanded that the guy be hauled away for assault.
htns, please perform the steps necessary to rectify your crania-rectal inversion, eh?
Oh, and in a time when altogether too many athletes are sleazeballs, Reggie Sanders stands out as a distinct class act. Bravo to him for both the gift of the bat and for taking the high road in the TV interview.
I don’t think any fan has any claim on a foul ball, just because of the fan’s age. If someone wants to give a foul ball to a kid, fine, that’s their choice, but it shouldn’t be assumed, demanded, expected, etc. But nobody is saying that all foul balls should be given to kids, so I fail to see why you’re acting as if someone pissed in your coffee, htns.
What I did see is a grown man dive into another row of seating. I saw his leg definitely hit the child’s torso. I saw the man scrambling around a woman’s legs. He didn’t give two shits about anybody else, or anything else, but his desire to grab a ball. I don’t even think he really “stole” the ball from the kid, because the kid didn’t even appear to be trying to get it. But he did kick a person and grope frantically around another person’s legs. He did behave like a boorish arsehole. He deserves a bit of shunning from society. Hopefully he is shamed and learns from this, but from the looks of his attitude, he’s probably got 20 justifications for his actions already lined up in his head. 
Well, my thoughts on this…
The guy is a complete idiot for over-reaching and stumbling into the next row for a foul ball. It’s just a foul ball. And I’ve always had problems with idiot fans proudly holding up a foul ball that they scrambled for on the ground… Make a nice catch, fine, hold it up and be proud, but picking it up off the ground? Well, that’s another rant.
I don’t think the guy is a jerk for not giving it to the kid. The mom was whacking him with a game program the entire time, pointing, and bitching at him. True, she was probably justified because the dumbass tumbled into their seats, but no way am I giving the ball to the kid after the mother was bitching and hitting me!
Anyway, it all worked out and the kid got a few balls and a bat out of the deal. The idiot fan and the idiot mother provided lessons that I hope the kid learns from.
The mom was only whacking, pointing, and bitching? If someone deliberately tumbled into me without even an apology, I’d be bitching. If someone did the same to a kid (or an elderly person, or someone visibly disabled or frail), I might out of control. I’d either be in the person’s face or planning the lawsuit.
Baseball! Ye had baseball not to go to? Why when I war a lad we had to not go to pounding-stuff-with-tree-branches-ball. An when they couldn’t get branches they tore off our limbs and used those. And we were HAPPY!
Honestly. Do you really believe the most important lesson you can teach a kid is that life sucks and the bigger and stonger will inevitable trample over the smaller and weaker. And he should just learn to suffer…till he’s big enough to trample over people himself? Why do I think “fuckwidget” grew up on that philosophy?
No life is not fair. Life is also not always unfair. We live in a society. Injustices can be addressed. Teaching a kid he lives in some might makes right jungle is no more accurate than teaching him he’s always going to get eveything he wants.
Baseball! Ye had baseball not to go to? Why when I war a lad we had to not go to pounding-stuff-with-tree-branches-ball. An when they couldn’t get branches they tore off our limbs and used those. And we were HAPPY!
Honestly. Do you really believe the most important lesson you can teach a kid is that life sucks and the bigger and stonger will inevitable trample over the smaller and weaker. And he should just learn to suffer…till he’s big enough to trample over people himself? Why do I think “fuckwidget” grew up on that philosophy?
No life is not fair. Life is also not always unfair. We live in a society. Injustices can be addressed. That’s (happily) part of the human condition too. As evidenced by…this whole incident. Teaching a kid might makes right and we live in a jungle is no more accuarate than teaching him he’s always going to get everything he wants.
Well, I’m not really defending the guy… he was a clueless idiot. But I don’t think he deliberately tumbled into anyone. He was just a shithead trying for a foul ball. I could see that happening to a lot of people. Like the guy going over the top, the mom went over the top as well. A “you stupid jackass, get back in your seat” would have sufficed.
I’m not defending anyone, except the kid, really.
If I were stupid enough to tumble into the row in front of me, yeah, i’d give the kid the ball. I wouldn’t do it, however, like i said, if the mom went on a rampage like she did.
More civility was needed on all kinds of fronts in this situation. And nobody should have been planning a lawsuit.
I still think a lot of you are wildly overreacting. He hardly even touched the kid, who didn’t appear to be remotely concerned. The guy’s legs incidentally hit the kid’s back, but the effect was that the kid moved forward a couple of inches. Considering how small the child is, you’d think it wouldn’t take much to cause him to fall.
Oddly enough, while the guy’s leap for the ball probably can’t be considered illegal (again, incidental contact), the kid’s mom’s behavior could be, in the narrowest sense - she assaulted the guy with her program.
The fuckwidget was crawling around between her legs. Hell, she should’ve cold-cocked him.
He was trying to get up while she was beating the crap out of him. There really is a difference. Is there a need to make him out to be some kind of pervert?
I think the guy was wrong to dive over the seats like that, not because he actually did any injury to the boy, but because he potentially could have. That fact, coupled with the behaviour afterwards, is what makes the guy an asshole.
That said, the kid wasn’t crying, and only noticed the ball when the man dived over. I think the mother wqas more annoyed at himn for how he almost ended up with his head in her lap, thats why she was hitting him with the programme. That is barely assault, by the way. If that’s assault, we have a hell of alot of criminals walking around free.
And Sugaree, you’d be planning a lawsuit? for what? Because some guy was an asshole to you? What actual damage did he cause?
I didn’t play the clip in slow mo. But the seats directly in front of the man were not occupied, the mother and son were slightly to the left. I didn’t see him push the kid, any contact was likely incidental to the act of falling into the next row. Neither mother nor child seemed to be making any effort to get the ball. All that being said, the contact being made whether or not accidental, the classy thing for the guy to do would be apologize profusely, offer the ball to the kid and buy them both a soft drink (which is what HE should have been drinking). Yeah, he’s a jerk but not as bad as some were making him out to be.
I don’t buy into the “gotta offer the ball to the nearest kid any time you get one” school of thought. Dang it, I’ve been going to baseball games for 40 years and have never gotten a major league game ball. If I do get one, I’m not going to give it to a kid- unless of course I push him while getting it myself.
“Incidental Contact” may be defense against a penalty in football, but it is not defense against reckless behaviour in real life.
A Louisville Slugger might be nice, inserted by George Brett until the pine tar is no longer visable.
And I believe but am not positive that the announcer was Tom Grieve, not Tim McCarver.
It isn’t so much that he dove after the ball in complete disregard for those around him, as much as the lack of concern or apology. A foul ball comes your way, yes you may get to exuberant, let’s say, in your attempts to retrieve the ball. Heat of the moment and all that stuff (personally a foul ball does not merit that much excitement from me, but others feel differently). We all act like inadvertant assholes at one time or another in our lives, I spilled half a beer on a woman at a hockey game when the team scored. However, most of us realize, when we have done something assholish, but not on purpose, that we apologize, show regret and depending on the situation may even go beyond that (buy them a beer etc.)You know, all he had to do was get up and apologize, saying “Sorry, I got a little carried away, I just have always wanted a foul ball.” I don’t even think he is required to give the kid the ball, I just think he needed to be more responsible for his actions.
Of course it is. If I smack into a person going after a ball, I’ve been reckless. If a second person is barely touched by my actions, that’s incidental contact. Why would I need to apologize to the second person?
Gangster Octupus, you’re right, any reasonable, nonjerk would have apologized, as this guy should have. But the fact that there was a kid there is mostly irrelevant, as this guy was more in the mom’s lap than interfering with the kid.
If Fuckwidget had immediately gone, “Oh, my God, are you all right? I didn’t mean to tumble into you guys. I’m so sorry,” mom wouldn’t have gone off. Instead, he started posing with the ball.
I’ve had total strangers end up with their heads in my lap. Once on a crowded bus when the driver had to slam on the breaks; more than once at shows when people were staggering around too wasted to walk. That’s a situation when you just help them up, accept their unnecessary but rote apology, and laugh about it.
When Mr. Fuckwidget dove over those seats, he did so with no regard for anyone nearby. Whether or not he tumbled over the mom and son was incidental to him; thus, I’d call his knocking into them deliberate, as opposed to the accidents I described above. And he knocked into the kid both going down and getting up.
She had some stranger in her lap, between her legs, in between herself and her freaked-out four-year-old. If I were in the mom’s exact situation, I’d consider hitting him with a program an ineffective form of self-defense.
Hyperbole over a hypothetical situation. I’d be planning the lawsuit when he knocked over my theoretical elderly person or dumped my theoretical disabled person out of the wheelchair.
Speaking of hyperbole… 
That kid sure didn’t look freaked out on the video. He looked almost indifferent.
If I ever find myself far too happy, I’m going to give you a call. Other than being used as a depressant, I’m not sure what other purpose a conversation with you would serve.