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Video: Another Baseball Fan Falls Over Railing Reaching For Ball
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 12, 2011
Modified Jul 12, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 12, 2011
Modified Jul 12, 2011
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Two baseball fans have fallen to their deaths so far this season, with the most recent fatality occurring Thursday night when a firefighter attending a Rangers game with his son reached for a ball and fell over a railing to the concrete below. But that tragic incident wasn't about to stop sports fan Keith Carmickle, who was so determined to grab a ball at last night's Major League Baseball Home Run Derby that he jumped up onto a metal table about 18 inches wide and lunged for a dinger from Milwaukee's Prince Fielder. He missed, and toppled over the railing:
Fortunately for Carmickle, his buddies were there to save him from the 20 foot fall. "He tried to catch it, I grabbed his legs and his brother grabbed his arms," one of his friends told the Associated Press. "So when he went over the ledge, we pulled him back. He wasn't going down, I was holding on." Carmickle and his friends were apparently on a roll leading up to the near-death experience; he says, "We caught three balls and I told the guys I was going to go for the cycle. Dude, they were really holding onto me... I bench-press 500 pounds, and I wasn't going down."
Security approached the men after the tumble, but after receiving a warning to be careful, they were allowed to stay for the rest of the game. Way to send a message, MLB (or Chase Field, or whatever private security company the Diamondbacks subcontract out to)! Asked about what was going through his head as he tumbled forward over the railing, Carmickle says, "I thought: I've lived a good life."
Yankees slugger Robinson Cano went on to win the Derby.
Tagged
baseball
gallery
home run derby
idiots
jocks
Keith Carmickle
mlb
morons
sports
usa
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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