# Pitting the people who are pitting the Rangers fan
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [April 26, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049 "2012-04-26T19:37:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/1 "2012-04-26T19:37:36Z")
So an unnamed Rangers fan is being castigated for not handing over the foul ball he caught to some mewling brat who also had his eyes on it. I say fuck that shit. The fan’s circumstances are unknown but what if he’d been waiting for years to catch a ball at a game? And he’s supposed to turn it over to some spoiled little kid who, chances are, will have lost and forgotten about the ball the next day? And what does the kid learn? That he can cry and people will give him whatever the hell he wants? God knows there are enough entitled assholes in the world - let’s not encourage more. So yeah, fuck that shit. And fuck all those people who think adults should kowtow to the whims of children. It AIN’T all about them.
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/2 "2012-04-26T19:48:42Z")
Sorry you had such a miserable childhood. Maybe you should stay in the game room until you feel better.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/3 "2012-04-26T19:52:23Z")
The description [here](http://mlb.mlb.com/cutfour/article.jsp?content_id=29693172&partnerId=aw-5425346765050197803-996) makes it sound like a ballplayer tossed a ball directly at the kid in question, and some douchebag jumped up and intercepted it.
> [@](#):
>
> Mitch Moreland tosses a ball toward a kid in the Rangers Ballpark stands. _That guy_ snatches it away.
If so, maybe the kid had something to legitimately cry about; but from the video, it’s not at all clear that was how it went down.
I also can’t tell how old the kid is. Bottom line, I’m still not sure who (if anyone) deserves Pitting here.
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### Author:  [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/4 "2012-04-26T19:52:26Z")
Gee, after reading the linked article, I have learned that if a child cries for something I have, I must either give it to him or explain to his parents (or maybe the world; it’s not clear) why I am keeping it. Wow, I have been so rude in the past. (and probably will continue to be…)
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### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/5 "2012-04-26T19:55:31Z")
You misunderstand. They are pitting him for being a Rangers fan…
Also, I have seen some _blatant_ ball thefts from kids. This one is minor by comparison. It really see them being more oblivious than downright sneaky.
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### Author:  [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/6 "2012-04-26T19:58:18Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Sorry you had such a miserable childhood. Maybe you should stay in the game room until you feel better.
Hey, they just let me out of the basement - give me a break.
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/7 "2012-04-26T20:00:23Z")
People (adults) need to get over this foul ball bullshit. Sure, it may be fun to be the one who catches it and waves to the camera, but after that who cares? It’s a $3 baseball. What are you going to do? Take it home and put it on your mantel to show your friends who don’t give a crap?
Give it to a kid and make his day you greedy prick. Skip the $10 beer and you can buy a box of baseballs on the way home.
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### Author:  [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/8 "2012-04-26T20:00:34Z")
What do you call a pissed-off chicken?
A foul fowl!
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/9 "2012-04-26T20:22:34Z")
I call bullshit that the player was trying to throw it to the kid (or his dad) – it went into the middle of a bunch of people, and there was no realistic was the dad was coming up with it.
The kid had zero claim on it, and there was no reason to hand it over. The couple who got it will obviously appreciate it more than the kid (who, as any parent can tell you, would forget about the damn thing in about two minutes), and why would the parents want to give their kid a ball that’s been all over the field anyway? The thing is going to go right into the kid’s mouth. Eesh.
Unfortunately, this couple is going to be vilified now. People who are calling them out aren’t looking at any from of reality.
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/10 "2012-04-26T20:22:39Z")
> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> People (adults) need to get over this foul ball bullshit. Sure, it may be fun to be the one who catches it and waves to the camera, but after that who cares? It’s a $3 baseball. What are you going to do? Take it home and put it on your mantel to show your friends who don’t give a crap?
> Give it to a kid and make his day you greedy prick. Skip the $10 beer and you can buy a box of baseballs on the way home.
A-Fricken-Men. I saw the video this morning, and the dude was sitting there, high-fiving his chick, taking pictures with the ball, all why this little kid is crying his eyes out two feet away from him.
It isn’t about kowtowing to children, it’s about not being a fucking child yourself.
That dude was a dick of the first order.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/11 "2012-04-26T20:22:40Z")
I love baseball. I think it’s awesome. I subscribe to MLBTV, watch hundreds of hours of baseball online and on TV every season, and usually get to somewhere between a half-dozen and a dozen games myself.
And i completely agree with **Hampshire**. Any grown man or woman who is obsessed with getting a foul ball, or a ball tossed into the crowd by a fielder, needs to get a life. If it happens to come straight to you, that’s fine; but if you go clambering over people or pushing kids out of the way to get it, you’re a fucking idiot.
If my count at the games i’ve been to is any indication, somewhere around 40-50 balls end up in the crowd at an average baseball game. Over the 2400+ games of a regular season, that’s over 100,000 balls. That five-dollar piece of stitched leather that you’re fighting for is not some unique snowflake, and there’s a 99.9 percent chance that the play that sent it into the stand is not memorable in any way. What are you going to do with it? Mount it on a stand, with a plaque that says, “Fouled into the seats by Alexei Ramirez on a 2-2 count in the bottom of the 3rd inning, DET @ CHW, April 16, 2011”? That will impress your guests, for sure!
That said, it’s not like the guy in this story jumped all over the kid to grab the ball, and i get just as annoyed by people who think that some stranger’s child should get something that doesn’t belong to him just because he cries for it. To their credit, the kid’s parents looked like they found the whole thing more amusing than anything else; unlike the commentators and all the other armchair douchebags, they didn’t appear to be castigating the guy for daring to keep a ball that their kid wanted.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/12 "2012-04-26T20:23:40Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#):
>
> I call bullshit that the player was trying to throw it to the kid (or his dad) – it went into the middle of a bunch of people, and there was no realistic was the dad was coming up with it.
>
> The kid had zero claim on it, and there was no reason to hand it over.
I agree with this, too. In this particular instance, it didn’t look like the ball was thrown specifically at the kid.
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### Author:  [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/13 "2012-04-26T20:26:15Z")
Not to mention that isn’t like anyone made some fantastic play on a high towering foul ball. The player was just lobbing it into the stands. Oooh yeah – nice play, there, fuckhead, aren’t you something.
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### Author:  [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/14 "2012-04-26T20:31:26Z")
All I know is that I always look around as I settle in for a game just to see if there’s a kid nearby. Cause I know if I catch a foul ball I’ll be expected to give it to the damn kid… (and I will, of course, because I’m not a douche).
So yeah, kids that cry over not getting a ball? Whiny kids. Grown-ass men that won’t give up a basically worthless baseball to a little kid? Assholes. The applause you get for giving the ball to a kid has move value than the ball itself, IMO.
Or, what **mhendo** said.
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### Author:  [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/15 "2012-04-26T20:58:48Z")
I’m all over it when people actually snatch the ball or whatever away from a kid. But just because some little asshole cries I should hand over something I have? Agreed with the OP. Fuck that and fuck the little kid, too.
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### Author:  [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/16 "2012-04-26T21:03:39Z")
Jesus, has anyone thought that the couple who ended up with the ball might have a kid at home who would be thrilled to get an actual game used ball from a major league game?
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### Author:  [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/17 "2012-04-26T21:11:18Z")
[This one is funnier](http://i.imgur.com/rmil3.gif)
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### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/18 "2012-04-26T21:31:11Z")
> [@Rune](#):
>
> [This one is funnier](http://i.imgur.com/rmil3.gif)
That’s fucking awesome.
As with most sport-related stories, I find myself effortlessly hating everyone involved.
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/19 "2012-04-26T22:10:32Z")
The only people who give a shit about getting a ball at a baseball game are children.
Between a child acting like a child or an adult acting like a child, I know who deserves to be pitted.
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### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-the-people-who-are-pitting-the-rangers-fan/620049/20 "2012-04-26T22:25:44Z")
> [@Rune](#):
>
> [This one is funnier](http://i.imgur.com/rmil3.gif)
I love the high-five after she literally snatches the ball out of the child’s hands! Nice!
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