WHAT'S FOUL IS FOUL

I don't know if you've seen the footage of the twenty- or thirty-something asshole who

jumped over a row of seats and pinned a 4-year-old boy against the seats with his legs while diving to get [a foul ball at a Rangers-Cardinals game on Sunday]. To no avail, fans started chanting "Give him the ball! Give him the ball!"

Boy, I sure did. As I've already noted, what an asshole! It's been all over not just ESPN and the sports pages but all the local and national news broadcasts, to boot. Anyway, today it turns out that said asshole has decided to give him the ball anyway. And now I'm seeing headlines like "Foul play made fair." And I can't quote from memory any of the MSNBC or Fox News broadcasts I saw this morning, but they were much the same.

To which I say: Hello! This is days after players in the game gave the kid their own baseball bats and amidst a baseball fan-done-wrong media frenzy we haven't seen since Steve Bartman. Does anybody think this asshole -- Matt Starr is his name -- is doing it out of the good of his own heart? One would think not. He's doing it because he can't go out in public without being treated as a pariah (as he should be). So why the rush to forgive? What's done is done.

P.S. Too bad "Pardon The Interruption" is pre-empted for the rest of the week for the U.S. Open. Wilbon and Kornheiser would agree with me.

P.P.S. Considering the media's appalling eagerness to let the guy off the hook this easy, maybe this is an example of liberal bias? Maybe.

P.P.P.S. And what's a grown man doing running like a madman after a foul ball? As a sports fan I'll grant that Barry Bonds' historic 73rd home run ball (which was not without controversy, either) is worth looking like a fool over. But not this.

P.P.P.P.S.Hell, Bartman comes out of this smelling like roses -- after all, he wasn't trying to be an asshole.

P.P.P.P.P.S. Believe it or not, this not my first baseball-related post.

P.P.P.P.P.P.S. One more P.S., for good measure. I think this might be a record.

NOTE: Cross-posted to Armed Prophet.

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posted by WWB at 6:20 PM |