Saturday’s game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox was full of unexpected situations.
The rain never stopped, as the umpire crew eventually had to call the game in the sixth inning, a shortened 3-1 Yankees victory.
However, that wasn’t the most curious thing that went on in the game.
A fan sitting in the outfield seats at Yankee Stadium threw a ball directly at Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo.
A fan throws a ball at Alex Verdugo and he is not happy. The Red Sox all left the field pic.twitter.com/Z8GHRZd2oY
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) July 18, 2021
Naturally, he was very angry and started screaming at the fan.
In fact, he began cursing and swearing at the fans yelling at him, and the whole scene was ugly.
Order was eventually restored, but it was a very uncomfortable situation for Verdugo.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora decided to pull his players off the field as a result, but they eventually returned.
The fan who threw the ball was thrown out of the ballpark.
An Uncomfortable Incident
Verdugo was calmer by the time he spoke with reporters after the game.
“The fans are in the wrong on that one. I feel like anyone who gets hit with a ball like that, it’s kind of a free-for-all, just let it all hang out and let your emotions go. I’m just happy that nothing went from it, nothing transpired, nobody got hurt. I didn’t get hurt. We’ll look back at it, I’ll laugh about it. I’m sure people will start messing around with some people in our clubhouse about it, too. But, yeah, we’ve got to clean it up.”
This week, it was revealed that the fan has been banned from all 30 MLB ballparks for his entire life.
The fan who threw a baseball at Alex Verdugo last night has been banned for life from all 30 @MLB parks, the #Yankees said.
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) July 18, 2021
He won’t be able to attend another game, and that punishment is deserved.
According to the outfielder himself, everything started when he threw the ball toward a Red Sox fan after a warm-up between innings, but the Yankees fan intercepted it.
Fans in the bleachers, according to Verdugo, started yelling and asking the Yankees fan to “throw it back,” so he did.
Even if the specific act of hitting Verdugo wasn’t on purpose (which we don’t know and don’t have any way of knowing unless the fan somehow speaks about the incident), it was a reckless move that could have hurt the player.
The Thin Line Between Verbal And Physical Confrontations Toward Players
Since they are kids, coaches and instructors try to teach young baseball players to block all outside noise and ignore what is being said outside of the diamond.
It’s not always that easy, and fans can be quite nasty.
When the line of verbal abuse is crossed, however, and the situation becomes physical (like it happened this time and every time fans throw objects to the field), the punishment should be severe.
Players can’t (and shouldn’t) fight back when objects are being thrown to the field, near or at them, and they can potentially be harmful.
There just has to be a limit, and this time, the fan who threw the ball at Verdugo clearly crossed it.
If the ban wasn’t severe enough, then fans may just decide it’s time to start throwing objects to the field without fearing the consequences.
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