https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vOZZ_9dwzU
Although they’re separated by barriers, baseball fans do get opportunities to interfere with the game. Sometimes, an eager fan leans over and grabs a wall-scraping home run ball that could’ve been played by an outfielder, or a daring fan leans over and interrupts a baseline hit’s trajectory. It’s not a regular occurrence, but it happens. And when it does, boy do those fielders get pissed.
That’s exactly what happened during last night’s Reds vs. Cardinals game in Cincinnati. In the top of the 7th inning, with the Cardinals up a run, Reds superstar Joey Votto ranged over into foul territory to make a play on a pop-up. An eager Reds fan had other ideas, and fixed his gaze on the ball hoping to secure it as a souvenir. When the ball landed, neither Votto nor the fan made the play, and Votto was very, very upset. So much so that he grabbed the fans t-shirt at the Reds logo, almost to emphasized his disgust at being interfered with by a hometown fan, tugged on it, let it snap back into place, then stalked away.
Well, Votto was in a decidedly good mood about an hour later. The Reds erupted for 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th for a walk-off victory over their division rivals. In addition, Votto had himself another typical Joey Votto day, as he reached base 5 times, went 4-for-4 at the plate, scored 2 runs and knocked in another. So, after the game, Votto signed a baseball, gifted it to that fan, and apologized for his t-shirt gesture.
If only he were that nice to opposing pitchers.
