So, how do we punish the guy in Left-Field?

The BBQ Pit
21

I’m not a Cub (or Red Sox) fan and I don’t blame That Guy In Left Field for the Cubs’ utter collapse Tuesday night, but if the Cubs lose tonight and Red Sox lose to the Yankees (which they’re on their way to doing right now), I think he should be strapped to a chair, have his eyelids kept constantly open (ala Clockwork Orange), and be forced to watch the anticlimatic snoozer of a World Series between New York and Florida that will result.

If that’s going to be the match-up, I guarantee hardly anybody outside of Dade County or the Tri-State area is going to give a rat’s ass about the outcome.

22

Just wanted to point out, that if Moses had caught the fly ball, and everything else in the 8th inning happened exactly the same, the Cubs would have exited the inning with a 3-2 lead. (The score was tied when the 2nd out was made, but the guy who hit the fly ball would have been out, so he would not have scored.)

So yeah, this misguided fan was indeed responsible for the Cubs losing the game, and perhaps the series. But I think he was just an instrument of Fate.

23

I’m sure he was just excitedly looking at the ball flying towards him, and had no idea that a player was going to jump at the last second reaching into the stands to make the play.

If MLB doesn’t want any fan interference, the ball parks should be redesigned slightly. There’s no fan interference in the NFL, is there?

Poor guy. His ass is grass.

24

The guy didn’t go to work today, and they have a police escort at his door. Man, he’s a lifelong MLB fan, and more than that, a Cubs fan.

Could we organize some kind of sacrifice as Dopers that would lift the curse? A goat? A politician? What would do the trick here?

I really feel for the guy, though. I bet he feels absolutely awful. There’s just something epic about the bad luck of the Cubs.

Is it being heedlessly optomistic to hope that they still win? Or the Sox? God, just not the Yankees yet again.

25

The fact that he needs a police escort for his personal safety would indicate that having to live in a city full of Cubs fans is punishment enough.

26

I think it’s hilarious that some Cubs fans want to blame this guy when their team absolutely collapsed in the biggest way possible and let up runs by the wheelbarrow full.

Then they lose game 7.

Your two best pitchers just beaten in your house when all the chips were down. Deal with it.

27

I don’t know why. It was classless, thoughtless and stupid of them, not to mention unnecessary, but I don’t know why you’re surprised.

28

Yes, I spouted off that any fan that interfered with a ball in play should be savagely beaten for possibly affecting the outcome of the game. And I still hold to that, because we fans simply should not do it.

But this is fucking ridiculous. Reporters, cops, death threats??? Making this guy the goat for a Cubs loss, especailly when this team has a long and illustrious history of losing, is too wrong for words.

This may be the ONLY time I ever say this, but it’s just a freakin’ game, people!!

29

On the plus side, Florida is offering the guy asylum.

30

Mr. Rilch and I are divided on our opinions of The Guy’s liability.

What I say is, he interfered with a professional who was doing his job. Suppose he was on the street and saw a movie crew filming. If he sidled up some lighting equipment and started fiddling with it, he would escorted off the set at best, and arrested for trespassing at worst, if it was a security set.

Just a few motions, and he’s a lighting setup that might have taken hours to get just right, and if he knocks over a 5K or messes with the spider box, he could hurt himself or someone else. And if, god forbid, he makes noise or otherwise interferes with the money shot*…well, I don’t know exactly what would happen, but the consequences would be as dire as the production could arrange.

Mr. Rilch, OTOH, just keeps rabbiting on about how the ball was still ruled foul (true) and The Fan says he didn’t know Alou was trying for it (probably true, but I’d say a lot of things if I were that guy. In fact, I’d probably claim I’d been having a mild seizure and can’t remember anything after the first inning**) and he’s not the one who fumbled the ball immediately afterwards, nor let in five subsequent runs, nor yet seven runs by the same person in game 7. (All true, but still not quite what I’m getting at.) According to him, The Fan was only a problem because the Cubs let him be one.

Even though I counter with the story about the time I saw a 1AD and a dolly grip come within a hair of being fired, because they wouldn’t stop yelling at each other, even seconds before a shot, thereby distracting the talent, who were trying to stay in character. Distracting people when they’re trying to stay in the zone is not cool.

“Don’t gimme that distraction stuff! They coulda come back from that! If they’re that easily distracted, then they don’t have what it takes!”

*Money shot: A crucial shot involving an expensive special effect, a stunt that can only be done once, or a complex camera move. So called because either the stunt/effect was especially costly, or because it took the crew an especially long time to set up the shot, thereby unbalancing the crew-salary-to-exposed-film ratio.

**No offense to any fellow epileptics out there. Now, you know I would never use my condition for personal gain or to toy with other people…but if it’s a matter of appeasing thousands of rabid baseball fans…well…

31

what were we talking about again?

32

Well, I’m not surprised, per se, but I was hoping for better. I had certainly neglected to think of Inside Edition and any clout within their reach. I am certainly glad that the AP held off from mentioning his name for as long as they did (until, I’m guessing, it was already disseminated by other outlets to the point that withholding his name didn’t quite make sense).

33

If the Cubs blow a two-run lead in both games 6 and 7, then they don’t deserve to go to the World Series.

Fan, schman, the Cubs choked under pressure.

34

Add me to the crowd of people who want to give the fan a little slack and go after the Cubs instead. I’m looking at you, Alex Gonzales, for booting the double play that would have won the game. I’m looking at you, Kerry Wood, for coming up empty in the biggest game of your career. I’m looking at you, Dusty Baker, for leaving both Prior and Wood in too long and for failing to realize that game 7 is a different beast and must be managed differently. I’m looking at you, Cubs bullpen, whose effort was pretty pathetic throughout the series. I’m looking at you, Cubs offense, who let the Marlins back in the series by failing to hit Beckett in game 5 and who failed to do much of anything against him in game 7.

There’s a lot of people who deserve blame. The poor guy in left field doesn’t deserve any of it.

35

There’s a lot of blame to go around, and that fan deserves some of it. If he hadn’t “interfered” with the ball, there would have been two outs and Gonzalez probably would not have made that error. It appears the error was caused by his taking his eyes off the ball to look at the runners for a possible DP.

All your other points are well taken. Moreover, I’m more mad at Wood because after his previous game, which he pitched well, he said that he really didn’t have his good stuff. He also said the reason he walked so many was that he didn’t want anyone hitting a homer. Well, the former statement was a slur to the Marlins (which I thought at the time) and even tho I’m a Cub fan, I thought that was not called for. In the 8th inning of the 7th game, he walked a batter after Pierre tripled. He had a 3-run lead and only one on. Why the Hell put another on, and the tying run at the plate, with a walk??? Wood has to get a better attitude if he’s going to be a good pitcher.

36

Ruined a lighting setup. But you could figure that out from context, right? :slight_smile: