The Sox suspended the guy's season tickets who interfered with Sheffield. I wonder if they even spoke to the guy. Probably not because they were forced to make a PR move to avoid looking bad. That's a shame. I have watched that play (thanks to the numerous times it has been shown) and while I don't think the guy should have reached on to the field, I don't think that revoking his season tickets was the right way to go. (By the way, they also banned the beer spiller....who spilled the beer when Sheffield took his charge when they were trying to get out of the way...there was no aggression on their faces, just fear)...There should have been some punishment, but they chose to make an example of this guy...
What? Sox bias you say? Well, maybe...But let's look at this from another point of view...I believe that they issue a warning about interfering with play before (or during) every game. This guy made contact with Sheffield, but did it change the course of the game? Absolutely not. Varitek would have had a triple on that play, and both runs would have scored. Nothing changes. But the guy made contact and probably should have been (and was) removed from the game AFTER Sheffield shoved him. The fan loses his tickets. Nothing happens to Sheffield...
That was Part 1.
Now Part 2...no one has spoken of this, and I am surprised as it changed the course of, perhaps, the entire Yankees organization through the 90s...That's right...Jeffrey Maier. Orioles are up in the game, about to go on to the Series. Jeter hits the fly ball, Tarasco is camped under it, and Maier pulls it over the wall. Yankees go on to win...Now if Tarasco had gone in to the stands, would we have understood? I mean not many people ever get to play in a World Series...BUT...Maier is NOT punished, but put (by many sports writers and the Mayor of NY at the time) in to a class of Yankee heroes like Mantle, and DiMaggio...
Sheffield gets swiped (not punched) by a guy's forearm, shoves the guy, the game doesn't change, and the media is painting this House guy as the "problem" fan in baseball. He is now the proto-type for all "bad fans". What about the knuckleheads who throw the batteries at players in the Bronx???
So, what did Sheffield have to say about all this once the revoking of the tickets happened?
"That just proves I wasn't in the wrong, and that's what this is all about (REALLY?)," Sheffield said in New York. "Yeah, you try to represent the game the right way (by taking steroids and then lying about it), but then being told you're in the wrong for reacting to something you didn't start, that's kind of disturbing. That just makes me feel like it's a hypocritical society."--Someone should explain hypocritical to him...
I'm okay with taking the fan's tickets away, so long as Sheff is also punished -- the two each crossed a line (literally and figuratively) and should be punished for it. Hopefully a fine, or, better yet, a couple game suspension. (That would make the Baseball Tonight Guys have a cow, which is fun in itself. John Kruk gets stupider and stupider the angrier he gets. It's awesome.)
ReplyDeleteIf Sheff decides to press charges I'll be ill.
...though the beer-throwing thing is a little weird. I thought it was an accident too. The police questioned most of the people in the area, and maybe shared the info with the Red Sox? Who knows.
ReplyDelete...Hey, who gets those season tickets?
All of this is a shame. That being said, it's clear that the Red Sox (and I wouldn't be suprised if they were asked by the league) are trying to make an example out of these two fans.
ReplyDeleteGood point about the kid that changed the Orioles post season back in the 90's. That being said, we're in the post-Ron-Artest era now. I can see league officials being a bit excessive here to make sure people in the future don't get any ideas.
And in fairness, I agree with Jesse. Shef should get some punishment as well. Granted he was hit in the face and he could "be defending" himself, but still he shouldn't have pushed the fan.
Not to be missed here is that the fans tickets were revoked for the rest of 2005. Not permanently.
ReplyDeleteThis allows the Sox to save face with the public punishment. And the guy has to miss the rest of this year's games, but chances are, he will get them back next year.
PS - I like how our Yankee links now say Slappy et al.