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Man Who Slept During Yankees-Red Sox Game Is Suing Yankees, ESPN, MLB
By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 7, 2014
Modified Jul 7, 2014
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jul 7, 2014
Modified Jul 7, 2014
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Can't a baseball fan fall asleep without being mocked on TV? That's the question one unhappy attendee of an April Yankees-Red Sox game is asking in a lawsuit.
According to Courthouse News, "Andrew Robert Rector sued Major League Baseball Advanced Media, ESPN New York, the New York Yankees, and ESPN announcers Dan Shulman and John Kruk, in Bronx County Supreme Court. He demands $10 million in damages for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress."
Rector claims that when ESPN's camera caught him, "Announcers like Dan Shulman and John Kruck unleashed avalanche of disparaging words against the person of and concerning the plaintiff. These words, include but not limited to 'stupor, fatty, unintelligent, stupid' knowing and intending the same to be heard and listened to by millions of people all over the world ...The defendant Major league Baseball continually repeated these vituperative utterances against the plaintiff on the major league baseball web site the next day. These words and its insinuations presented the plaintiff as symbol of anything but failure."
MLB does have video of Rector online:
Also from Rector's lawsuit, via Court House News:
"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."
[h/t Consumerist]
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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