The Rangers Bullpen Attacks Fans
 

I'm sure most everybody has heard of this by now, Francisco Rodriguez and a few other guys in the Texas Rangers bullpen attacked some fans at Network Associates last night. I read the article on ESPN, and in newspapers from Dallas, Oakland, and AP, and nothing said what the fans actually said. Rodriguez hit a fan in the face with a chair (who was uninvolved) and she was bloody afterwards, but personally I don't think he should be suspended for more than ten games. I think once it comes out specifics of what was being said I will be more justified, and by no means I am saying it was OK or the right thing to do on the bullpens part, but the guys were supposed to be kicked out of the game much earlier and security never did, so they must have been sitting there right by the bullpen making pretty bad comments for quite a while, and to me you can't pin all the blame on the player.

:eek:

how can you not blame the player he's dumb enough to throw a chair into a crowd of people and hit an innocent person who wassn't even involved in the whole thing. He should be suspended for the rest of the year.

yeah kinda threw a chair and broke an innocent woman's nose

that's assault, brother

Did he throw a chair into the stands and it happened to hit someone in the face or did he smack her across the face with hit (like in wrestling)?

he threw the chair with intention of hitting someone

he hit the wrong person apparently

he threw it into the crowd and nailed the women right in the face. He was charged with Aggrivated assault.

There's no Francisco Rodriguez on the Rangers...you must mean Francisco Cordero

20 game suspension and a 500,000 fine.


Have half of the 500,000 go to the damages for the woman he hit.

Frank Francisco

Yeah, so it this morning on Sportscenter. What a dick. Kind of funny when the players and fans get into it though. Like remember when Garcia and I think Nelson were fighting that guy at Fenway. haha. I think he was part of the grounds staff though.

This kinda stuff happens to a team slipping out of playoff contention. The Rangers are done now.

I don't mean to go off saying that he should be let off with a small penalty, the rest of the season for sure, probably more now that I think about it, but also something has got to be done to keep fans like that out. Whether it was racist or threatening or whatever isn't revealed yet, but there are two sides that need to be fixed in this issue.

It's always the player's fault.

No matter what was said, done, or thought - always the player.

it doesn't matter if the fan is yelling out racial slurs he can have security remove him, NEVER should any pro athlete THROW a chair into a crowd of people.

so if someone calls me a jew while im at work it's ok to pistol whip them?

Indeed.

Just look at what happened to Eric Cantona when he went for that Palace fan. The Palace fan was completely asking for it, but the sportsman's gotta rise above it. He got hella punished too.

Players get heckled alot, maybe not all the time. They need to learn to deal with it and block the fanatics out. Even if your'e just a scrub like Fransisco, who hardly gets attention you gotta deal with it. No excuse for anything else, unless a fan steps into the ballpark or waits for you outside the parking lot then they could feel free to stomp a mudhole.

Ah the fuss over that was amazing people wanted him kicked out of the country and everything

\m/http://gfx.dagbladet.no/sport/2002/10/18/eric.jpg\m/

I saw that on the news last night, and normally I could care less about baseball, but WOW. Fuck 20 game suspension, that kind of behavior deserves a ban from the game. If you are on a sprots team, you should be used to being heckled by fans on the opposing team. It's part of his fucking job and here he is throwing chairs into the crowd?

Bullshit.

I reckon that the stadium security should have to take some of the responsibility given that the fans should have been kicked out much earlier

Some scrub who no one knows.

Yeah it was Francisco, my bad

You would have pistol whipped them anyway, that would just be extra incentive.

Do you come with the Jew Claw?

ok, so far every report has said the fans didn't do anything wrong, they just heckled them. No swears, no Racist remarks... just good'ol heckling... like that guy at (I think TampaBay) who non-stop heckles players.

To an extent it's part of the game.

If the fans didn't cross the line, the players were way out of line responding.
If the fans did, they still were way out of line (1) plenty of security you can alert to handle that. (2) you don't throw a chair into the stands...

That woman however, may have spent a few bucks on her ticket, but will make it back big time.

I'll assume a cival suit against the follow
The player
The Rangers
The Stadium owners
The Stadium security
and probably MLB for good meassure.

I bet she walks away with 500K to 1mil. w/o ever having to make a court apperance.

For once you and I agree. Unless your being sarcastic. Whether racial slurs are being dropped or not, baseball players are our role models. Whether they be a player like A Rod or a jobber in the bullpen. They need to show restraint in these times when they need to show them the most. And throwing a chair into the stands is absolutely unacceptable no matter what the circumstances are.

lol even if that may be right, that is ridiculous.

Actually every report I have read says that what the guy was saying was well beyond normal heckeling and it was going on the whole game, they just haven't printed specifics. Even so it went too far on the players part anyway.

According to ESPN there was nothing racial or over line now, that was the initial word yesterday but they must have gotton more information. My bad.

This is just sad. Never and I mean never is it not the players fault for what happened. I mean these guys are supposed to be professionals. This guy should be suspended for the rest of the season and a hefty fine. Half goes to that woman like that other guy said. :y:

What the player did was fucked up. BUT I would take a chair to the face and a broken nose for how much money that ladie is getting.

So I read what a heckler in the stands said that put the guy over the edge.

He said something to the effect of "Which loser is going to give up the game this time?"

Obviously not word for word, but it's what most witnesses are recalling.

Looking like the pitcher going to get a short suspension - but possibly deported, as now there is a lawsuit in the works, with a possible Civil suit following that. Francisco is an idiot.

It's called common sense. You don't throw a chair into the crowd, much less the face of somebody who had nothing to do with the situation.

He should be suspended for a lot longer than he's going to be suspended for.

Also, Buck Showalter retracted his statement that the heckler crossed the line, after Tom Hicks and Bud Selig formally apologized to the broken nosed fan.

By this sentence I guess you know how long he's suspended for. I never really heard the article. How long is he being suspended? :?:

See if i was heckling sportsman to fuck and i got a broken nose for it i'd accept it and just rant and rave for a while and neck some beers. These guys are gonna try and lecch whoever they can for as much as they're worth:n:

yea really. Next time I'm at Yankee Stadium, I'm going to start berading the other team to the point where someone throws a chair at me. :y: I'll take a broken nose for 500K

Don't assume that Franco Francisco is Kobe Bryant, he probably makes less than 200,000 a year...She's going to get money, but she's not going to be retiring after the case is done.

You know she's gonna sue everyone she can including the Rangers and the MLB.

I woulda pushed that fatwoman outta the way and taken the hit, if i was there and had the quick thought process. I woulda been bleeding with a Foley type smile right after.

with a tooth coming out of your nose?

Crimson, that was just gay

The player who threw the chair will get a cival suit

the Oakland stadium may also get sued, since everyon has said the owner is cheap and has never had enough security. Last year someone hit Carl Everett w/ a cell phone and there have been other problems there.

The Rangers probably for not controlling their player

and MLB for overseeing everyone.

I'd expect them to settle.

I'm normally against these law suits like the woman who spilt hot coffee and burned herself and sued mcdonalds cause it was too hot.

But in this case, I'm fine w/ her suing... she has every right to.

That being said, her lawyer has said they will wait till after the criminal because they want the legal system to be able to do it's job.

The players lawyer said he felt someone grab his non-pitching hand very hard and he didn't what he needed to do to get out of the situation. Also said that he was pushed foreward by other team mates behined him... found it funny, the lawyer basicly blammed the stadium for the fans being so close, the ranger players for piling behined him and he threw the chair cause someone had his arm... looked in the replay like he threw w/ 2 hands... so how did someone have his arm?

Just because a person (player) doesn't make millions a year doesn't mean they can't be sued for millions.

Just saw a news clip of this lady. She was being interviewed. ?Blah blah blah".. what I found funny was the grin on her face. She knows....she knows she's going to make some faboulous moula.

On SportsCenter they quoted Torii Hunter saying he picks up at least a dollar worth of change everyime he plays in Oaklands outfield because people throw stuff

So how exactly does she go about getting all that money?

Pain and suffering? :|

Unfortunately Outlaw this is America we're talking about, pain and suffering has nothing to do with it.

Hell whats next? A guy starting a fight in a bar and suing the guy who beats the shit out of him and the landlord for owning the glass which was used against him?

Actually, it has a lot to do w/ it. She will probably sue under pain and suffering. So far, they don't seem like the normal money types, but if they do go for everything they can get, I'd expect P&S, Medical Bills, Lost time at work, and some type of mental issue... fear of chairs... trouble sleeping... maybe some permanent breathing damage...

That has no comparrision to this. The fans didn't start a fight, they were heckling, the players over reacted and one player threw a chair.

but to try and get close to the scenario you're talking about.

I'm at a bar, some guy gets really drunk, and gets into a fight. Me, not involved gets hit by a chair the guy throws. Yes, the guy who threw the chair is liable, the bartender or waitress is personally liable and the bar itself. The latter 2 for over serving. Those laws started around here to crack down on drunken driving. ie. I go to your bar, you serve me, I get drunk, drive my car and kill someone. I can get sued, but so can you as bartender and/or owner of the bar.

I know she'll sue under pain and suffering, that has nothing to do with whether or not she really suffered much. She knew a split second after it happened she had hit the jackpot...So did she suffer? No probably not really.

Yeah, but you've got to admit, it was probably painful.

For sure it was painful.

Did she suffer?

She has a broken nose... of course she suffered... to what extent is a different story.

Thing that gets me is the fact that she suffered...No matter how little or how much, is justification for suing anyone she can for millions :-\

We don't know yet who or how much she is suing... everyone is just assuming who she will sue.

They said there will be a Cival suit, that might just be against the player.

and in my opinion yes, someone makes you suffer phsyical pain from an attack they're liable.

I hear the Oakland fans bomb the players pretty bad too so you never know what the guy said. But still who throws a chair?

LOL millions

A broken nose for a million dollars, ridiculous

CHA CHING!!!!!!

My dad had a broken nose once, maybe we can get millions

How'd he break it?

Also, no one knows what she's getting... I love how everyone is giving this woman crap... she spent her money to go to a ball game... a player threw a chair and it hit her in the face... good thing it didn't hit her in the temple.. or a kid in the throat.

As for the money, who knows... could be 100K could be 5mil, no ones knows yet... a lot will have to do w/ if the person/people want to settle out of court.

A guy threw a chair at another guy and hit him in the nose while he was watching a baseball game.

Nah not really.

I dunno, I might sue too

Wished the guy woulda hit the racist prick who was berading him tho

Apparantly he wasn't racist now?

Oh, I was in the thinking that was what was being reported.

It was initially, and thats what I thought, but now they are saying it was just regular heckleing and the Rangers took back their comments saying they were racist.

LOL

That guy needs to be slapped then. I've taken a lot of heckling/racism with sports from fans and other players. I've been called a honkey/white trash/"****** wannabe" and etc.

I never threw a chair though. Dunno the comments always made me play harder and most of the time we ended up winning and I would look at them and be like hey who won?

The pitcher BTW, has been suspended for the rest of the regular season.

Lol, like he's appealing

I think Peter Gammons said in an interview the other day (might not have been Gammons) that while most reports are it was normal heckling, there is a report that something was said to the player who flipped out (the white player who everyone was holding back) about his still born child.

Now, even w/ that being said, you still have to brush it off... The right thing to do and some athletes have is notify security and have the fan ejected. Rick Buerlson when he coached 3rd for the Red Sox did that all the time... normally late in a game that wasn't close, drunk fans would make their way down from the cheap seats as people left and would ride him... if he felt they were out of line he'd turn and stare at them, if they kept it up, after he went back to the dugout security would come over and eject people.

Gammons also said he was told by a Sox player about someone harrasing Mike Timlin about his dead mother (I think she died of ALS) and Timlin just ignored the person.

Now, if the guy or someone did bring up a still born child, he does deserve his butt kicked, but as a profesional you just can't do it... and even more, that doesn't excuse someone else (or even that player) from throwing a chair.

So far all the "off the record" from players have been that Oakland is the worst place to play, but no matter whatever happens or is said, you can't throw a chair and they're all happy about the suspension.

The irony in all this, something I didn't realize, is the women that got hit was the hecklers wife.

Really? I never knew that :mad: In the clip you could see her husdband was the guy the fans were holding back, but I thought that was just because his wife just got hit in the face with a chair. What d-bags. Might as well be Philly.

Ok, let's assume he didn't make a comment about the guys Still Born child.

If all it was, was heckling... then WTF, I don't get what they did wrong...

That being said, throwing things on the field and at players is wrong, but they didn't do that.

an no, no fans are as bad as Eagles fans.

All I am saying is that she doesn't seem so innocent anymore. Regardless of your logic, she just doesn't to me. Simply put.

Talking about terrible fans. I gets me thinking about the then Clevland Browns' fans throwing snowballs at the oppossing receivers in the end zones.

Well just because her husband was an asshole, doesn't mean she should be getting a broken nose. I feel a little chuckle in me for the irony, but still...

Well of course it never should have happened, but happening to the fat-ugly wife of the actual heckler makes me feel less empathy than if it was a young single mother with no connections who broke both of her wrists and couldn't take care of her family.

Oh yeah, I agree with that.

The irony is circular.

...in the end though, the Heckler makes money.

I never thought about it that way either, damn

I never thought about it that way either, damn

I never thought about it that way either, damn

Shit, sorry about that my IE was super fucked up and running really slow so I must have accidently pushed send a bunch. Sorry.

TPWW had a slow spell there for a bit.