A while back, I wrote a Pulitzer-worthy investigative piece about a-hole adults who steal foul balls and home runs from children, and how they should be identified and added to a list of people who are banned from every baseball stadium in America for the rest of their lives. Today, we have a story about a Boston Red Sox fan who should earn a VIP spot on that list that qualifies for the boot from any sports venue in the world, because he sure sounds like just about the biggest piece of sh*t that’s ever done been to the ol’ ballpark.
As Brandon already mentioned, the unnamed man rose to Internet celebrity status during the early innings of last night’s come-from-behind 6-5 ALCS Game 2 victory by the Sox over the Detroit Tigers. By itself, this game was incredible, truly a playoff classic for the ages. But then Tommy Toughguy came along and once again made the narrative of the playoffs about how horrible sports fans are, thanks to his childish and allegedly racist behavior.
It started when Alex Avila hit a 2-run home run to give the Tigers a 5-0 lead, and Tommy Toughguy took the ball out of a woman’s hands and threw it back on to the field.
From there, Yahoo!’s Jeff Passan reports, sh*t got real…ly f*cking stupid.
“He was talking all game,” Sikoutris told Yahoo Sports from his seat in Row 1, right above the Tigers’ bullpen, two innings after the man was escorted out by security after throwing back a home run hit by Detroit catcher Alex Avila.
Sikoutris, who attended the game with his father, wore a Prince Fielder jersey, which prompted the man to allegedly call him “Prince Fielder’s crackhead brother.” In addition, Sikoutris said, the man yelled at another African-American Tigers fan walking through the section, saying: “Go back to the ghetto.”
Security led the man and a woman, who fans said attended the game with him in Row 5 of Section 42, out through the stadium’s Gate C. On the way out, Sikoutris, who fans said had been level-headed dealing with the man, said: “Bye-bye.”
The response from the man: “Bye, Trayvon.”
Of course, we could simply use this one a-hole’s story to continue painting Red Sox fans with a broad stroke, but we shouldn’t. This ongoing quest for people to label every team’s fans as the absolute worst is just stupid. We get it, Boston has some shitty fans. Some Cardinals fans are misogynistic, racist homophobes, too. New York fans are loud and obnoxious and Miami and Los Angeles fans will stab you if you look at them wrong. Old news.
What matters in this case is that we use the Internet for the reason it was invented – to identify this man, reveal his name and ruin his life. Until we’ve done that, this bickering over which team has the worst fans is ultimately meaningless.
(Banner via Getty)
