Mets fan charged of trying to distract Atlanta players during game

[Blue_Tires]

April 21, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) -- A 40-year-old man arrested at Shea Stadium on Friday night is accused of trying to distract an Atlanta Braves pitcher and shortstop with a high-powered flashlight.

Frank Martinez was charged with interference with a professional sporting event and second-degree reckless endangerment, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Saturday.

Authorities said Martinez flashed the powerful light at the players in the bottom of the eighth inning from his seat behind home plate. He was quickly ejected from the game.

"The defendant's alleged actions recklessly endangered the lives of players and spectators and caused a temporary delay to the game," Brown said.

The hullabaloo began at about 10:15 p.m. as the Braves were leading the Mets 7-0. Tim Hudson was on the mound facing Mets pinch-hitter Endy Chavez when, investigators said, Martinez turned the beam on the Braves pitcher and shortstop Edgar Renteria.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-braves-mets-ejection&prov=ap&type=lgns
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The sissification of the American pastime continues...Which brave DUers will join me in chipping in to this fan's defense fund?? The ACLU has to be all over this shit!!:silly: :freak: :nuke: :crazy: :web:

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. You gotta be kidding

Hell, I'd throw the switch. :grr:

Fans are at the game to watch, which includes cheering and booing. They are allowed to use their voices and certain other "rah-rah" implements to cheer their ball club and distract the opposition. Shining a light in opposing players' eyes is NOT acceptable.

I'd put this bozo in a cell with assbuckets who run onto the field or throw stuff.

[Blue_Tires]

3. so that mean you're good for say, a $100 donation??

LOL

[THUNDER HANDS]

5. is it that much different

than fans waving signs or things at opposing players shooting free throws in a basketball game?

I mean, kick the guy out of the stadium if you want, but there's no reason to arrest him.

[Oeditpus Rex]

9. Yes

You can ignore signs, etc. Could you ignore a light shining in your eyes?

[SeattleGirl]

11. Exactly right, Oedi.

Baseball players are used to having crowds in their eyesight. Having a light shown in their eyes is quite different.

[petronius]

15. Throw the guy out - sure. Even ban him from the stadium

But if "interference with a professional sporting event" is an actual crime, than that's a horsecrap law, in my opinion. And the 'endangerment' charge is equally bogus.

I love watching sports, and I hate disruptive and uncouth fans, but this is not an area where our legal code needs to tread...

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. I agree that's a dubious charge

But reckless endangerment? Sure. Even simple assault.

[sasquatch]

2. Someone has to do something to keep the Braves from getting into the playoffs

[Blue_Tires]

4. David Wright, the pride of Chesapeake, will take care of that!

[ulysses]

39. not if he keeps having to bat against Hudson he won't.

:7

[wildhorses]

6. night games ---

see what a problem they have caused

the ruination of a perfectly good sport

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Damned skippy!

Bring back day games when all they did was fire guns into the air.

[wildhorses]

8. could you put that in semicolon form, puhleeze?

*batting eyes*

:hi:

[Oeditpus Rex]

10. If you wish

Bring back day games; all they did then was fire guns into the air.

:7

[wildhorses]

12. those rowdy fans !!

let 'em eat peanuts and crackerjacks :bounce:

[pokerfan]

13. Could've been worse

I mean at least it wasn't a flashy pair of earrings.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stark_jayson/1246484.html

[SeattleGirl]

14. I remember that game.

I couldn't BELIEVE Vizquel bitched about that. :eyes:

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. Why not?

If they were buggin' him, he had the right. It's in the rules.

Hell, I've seen umpires make pitchers change their undershirts because they had raggy arms that distracted batters. (The shirts, not the pitchers.) There're pitchers like Whitey Ford, Steve Carlton, Don Sutton and Gaylord Perry who'd take every little advantage they could, including wearing rag-armed undershirts. Umps can't do anything about that unless the other club complains.

Once, umpire Jocko Conlan made Whitey Ford excuse himself from the field to remove his wedding ring. Seems Conlan figured out Ford was using it to cut the ball. The line, according to Jim Bouton in "Ball Four," was, "Whitey, go into the clubhouse. Your jockstrap needs fixing. And when you come back, it'd better be without that ring."

:rofl:

[SeattleGirl]

19. ROFL!

That cracks me up. I have "Ball Four" but haven't read it all the way through.

Have you read "You're Out And You're Ugly Too" by Durwood Merrill? He was an ump. The book is great!

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. Nuh-uh

I think Merrill was on Ron Luciano's crew for awhile. I have both of Luciano's books — the ones he wrote before he killed himself.

Seems after "The Umpire Strikes Back," ump bios became The Thing. I have "Behind the Mask" by Dave Pallone, the only gay ump (that we know of), and "You've Got To Have B*lls to Make It In This League" by Pam Postema, the only female ump to make it to Triple-A — and, by most accounts, she should've been in the majors.

Conlan's bio, though, "Jocko," was originally published in the '60s, I think. And there's a marvelous piece by Babe Pinelli, who umped forever and had the plate for Don Larsen's perfect game in the '56 World Series, in the Second Fireside Book of Baseball, published in 1958.

[SeattleGirl]

21. Day-am! I'm gonna have to get those books!

I didn't know Luciano killed himself. :cry:

I was heartbroken when McSherry died on the field.

[Oeditpus Rex]

23. I remember that day

I was writing sports for the paper in Watsonville, and we were on deadline when it hit the wires. (It was an evening paper.) I don't remember if we got it in, but it was like, "Oh, shit!"

Pallone's book is fairly well-written, but I thought it was too much about him being gay and his relationships. I mean, I didn't need to know about his "first time" any more than I need to know about a het guy's. (I'll probably regret saying that.) Postema's book isn't so well-written, but it's interesting from the POV of the only female umpire to get anywhere near as far as she did. And both have some really great stuff about the minor leagues. It's a wonder any ump survives the minors, man.

The books I consider a "must" for baseball fans are the four Fireside Books of Baseball. They came out in 1956, 1958, 1968 and, I think, 1986, and they're full of the best baseball writing from all sorts of genres — reporting, essays, biography, opinion, lots of humor, plenty of photos — even cartoons, poetry and music. The first one has the entire text of Casey Stengel's testimony before a House anti-trust committee, which is fucking hilarious.

[SeattleGirl]

25. Thanks, Oedi!

More books to add to the list, but that's okay. I lurves books and I lurves baseball!

I think I told you before that the Indians' fans (it was a home game for the Indians) were really pissed off that the game was cancelled after McSherry's death. I couldn't believe it. I mean, I'm an avid baseball fan, but I can certainly understand cancelling the game that day. Shit, a man died, ger gawd's sake. Have some respect.

[Oeditpus Rex]

26. Huh?

It was at Cincinnati on Opening Day, 1996. McSherry was an NL ump.

[SeattleGirl]

27. Oops.

My bad. Thanks for correcting me. :yourock:

[Oeditpus Rex]

28. I just learned something, too

From a purely pragmatic standpoint, it would've been a mistake to go on with the game. Tom Hallion, who was working third base that day, went to the hospital with McSherry.

There've been games worked by three umps, but two?

Anyway, check this, from Wikipedia:

Shaken and tearful players on both teams (as well as the managers: the Reds' Ray Knight and Montreal's Felipe Alou, and their respective coaching staffs), consoled the grieving umpires and, ultimately, it was decided that it would be best to postpone the game.

Said Ray Knight: "Barry (Larkin, the Reds' shortstop), told me very quietly and with very much emotion: 'Ray, I've had a lot of deaths in my family. In good conscience, out of respect for life, I can't go out there.'"

And here's a real beauty:

Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott, considered a controversial and polarizing figure in the sports world, was quoted as having said: "Snow this morning and now this. I don't believe it. I feel cheated. This isn't supposed to happen to us, not in Cincinnati. This is our history, our tradition, our team. Nobody feels worse than me."

Edit to add: The game couldn't go on.

[SeattleGirl]

29. Bless those players and managers.

They GET IT, don't they?

Marge? Boy, what a piece of work. "This isn't supposed to happen to us..."??????? Uh, Marge, it happened to McSherry, baby, not to you. :eyes:

[Oeditpus Rex]

30. Reminds me of Earle Cabell

the mayor of Dallas when JFK was shot. Jack Anderson wrote in "The Day Kennedy Was Shot" that he beat his fists against a wall and yelled, "Not in Dallas! Not in Dallas!"

Two more weird things about McSherry:

•He was supposed to have a physical that day, but he blew it off to work the game. (That was when the traditional opener in Cincinnati was still a big deal.)

•He became a crew chief in 1988 when Lee Weyer died of a heart attack in mid-season.

[SeattleGirl]

31. I remember that about Lee Weyer.

I remember the sports newsies talking about that.

[Oeditpus Rex]

32. I didn't

And I remember the old umps like I remember the players. :shrug:

Augie Donatelli. Nick Colosi. Ed and Paul Runge. Emmett Ashford. Chris Pelekoudas. Bruce Froemming. Frank Pulli. Frank Secory. Ed Vargo. Dick Stello. Bill McGowan. Russ Goetz. Hank Soar. Al Barlick. Ken Burkhardt. Bill Haller. Ken Kaiser. John Kibler.

And the dean of 'em all, Harry Wendlestedt, who in a 1968 Giants-Dodgers game ruled that Dick Dietz didn't try to get out of the way of a pitch by Don Drysdale that hit him with the bases loaded. After the breaking-loose of all hell died down, Drysdale pitched out of it, got his fifth-straight shutout and went on to break Walter Johnson's record for consecutive scoreless innings. (Drysdale's record was broken by Orel Hershiser in 1988, the Greatest Season of All.)

Cripes. I gotta go to bed. :crazy:

[SeattleGirl]

33. OMG, you're worse than I am!

I remember lots of those names: Colosi, Runge, Froemming, Vargo, McGowan, Goetz, Barlick, Kaiser. And I know pretty much all of them now.

Sheesh, prolly time for me to hit it too! :crazy:

[Blue_Tires]

22. wow...

My dad had Luciano's books, and i read them as a youngster...i had no idea he had killed himself...

[Oeditpus Rex]

24. Yeah, in 1995

Carbon monoxide poisoning in his car. He was distraught over his divorce and, I think, some business ventures that went bad.

[Big Pappa]

16. I hope

that flashlight did not cause permanent damage to his corneas.:evilgrin:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

34. Death by flashlight?

Reckless endangerment? There are some stupid cops.

The guy was equally stupid. Trying to rescue a 0-7 deficit with a flashlight. You need a laser, at least.

:rofl:

[Deja Q]

35. When I was a child, a neighbor often did the same thing while I was bike riding...

Forgive me for having little sympathy; even if the claim the players' lives' were endangered is a tad far-fetched...

[MadHound]

36. Now let's compare this with European football fans,

Now that's where you truly find fans "recklessly endangered the lives of players and spectators". This is a minor annoyance compared to throwing bottles, punches, rocks, kicks, etc. etc.

Hopefully this ass just gets banned for life from baseball stadiums, that's what would be appropriate, not criminal charges.

[KG]

37. sissification is right! in the good ol' days they'd let the players go up into the stand after the

bozo. :hi:

[ulysses]

38. thank you!

:thumbsup: