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Video: Sleeping Yankees Fan Talks About $10 Million Lawsuit Against Yankees, MLB, ESPN
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 25, 2014
Modified Jul 25, 2014
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 25, 2014
Modified Jul 25, 2014
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Andrew Robert Rector was upset that ESPN and its announcers focused on his sleeping image for many minutes during an April Yankees game. So he did the normal thing and sued the sports network, as well as Major League Baseball AND the Yankees, for $10 million. Now he's speaking up about why he got the sadz and about his lawyer who used "highly idiosyncratic and often ungrammatical English" in the suit.
Rector appeared on the Today Show, only to have Matt Lauer ask why he was making a big deal, since he was at a public game. Rector said that after his snooze, when he got up out of his seat, people started clapping for him because his image was broadcast on the Jumbotron. And then the next day, he realized he'd be mocked on TV, too.
He complained, "Put yourself in my shoes. How would you feel if you were broadcasted on TV all over the media? They put me on YouTube. People get to like it. It basically creates a public forum where people could comment. I mean, there’s so many derogatory comments about me that was caused by what they did." Lauer told him never to read Internet comments!
Rector did admit, "Apparently I have an interesting lawyer. Hopefully over the next few days we’ll figure out how we’re planning to move forward, how we’re going to move forward with the whole case." According to the typo-filled lawsuit, the video implied:
"Plaintiff is unintelligent and stupid individual.
"Plaintiff is not worthy to be fan of the New York Yankee.
"Plaintiff is a fatty cow that need two seats at all time and represent symbol of failure.
"Plaintiff is a confused disgusted and socially bankrupt individual.
"Plaintiff is confused individual that neither understands nor knows anything about history and the meaning of rivalry between Red Sox and New York Yankee.
"Plaintiff is so stupid that he cannot differentiate between his house and public place by snoozing throughout the fourth inning of the Yankee game."
Lauer asked if a simple apology would make the lawsuit go away, and Rector said, "Possibly."
A NJ lawyer told the Star-Ledger the lawsuit was stupid: "Without a doubt, this shouldn't only be embarrassing to the lawyer who brought this case, but it's embarrassing to his fellow lawyers. There's no reason for it... Attorneys can do really valuable things, like exposing the steering system defect in GM cars, recently. That only came out because lawyers were breathing down GM's neck and taking depositions and investing thousands of hours and dollars to prove there was a serious problem causing needless deaths. However, this kind of frivolous, groundless suit ... is the kind of thing that gives lawyers a bad name."
Anyway, watch the video again, because why not:
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Andrew Rector
Andrew Robert Rector
lawsuit
sleeping yankees fan
Yankees
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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