“Yankees fan caught sleeping on TV sues ESPN, MLB”

“A New York man who was caught sleeping at a recent Yankees game against the Red Sox on ESPN is filing a $10 million defamation suit against broadcasters Dan Shulman and John Kruk for their ‘avalanche of disparaging words,’ according to the New York Post.” Andrew Robert Rector’s complaint over the broadcasters’ “vituperative utterances” appears to have been translated awkwardly into English from some other language, a sample sentence reading: “It is well known that rivalry between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox is always the biggest in all of sport.” [Sporting News]

6 Comments

  • I was at that game and what the broadcasters said about him wasn’t a patch on what I said about Boston.

    Bob

  • Two words Mr. Rector should become familiar with soon: Streisand Effect.

  • What, he didn’t have an expectation of privacy at Yankee Stadium?

    As a result, the used-car dealer claims to have “suffered substantial injury” to his “character and reputation,” as well as “mental anguish, loss of future income and loss of earning capacity.”

    He is just reinforcing our stereotype of a used car saleman.

    But his typo-ridden suit says Shulman and Kruk’s “false statements” include suggestions that Rector is “not worthy” to be a Yankee fan and “is a fatty cow that need two seats at all time and represent symbol of failure.”

    You would have thought that this was a pro se lawsuit, but according to the article he has a lawyer.

  • The man fell asleep at a baseball game, he knew there were cameras there it’s his own fault. I know baseball isn’t the most interesting game to some people but how can one fall asleep in a stadium full of people?

  • Andrew, I really don’t begrudge him for falling asleep. It is the filing of the lawsuit part that I think we are struggling with.

    These cases go a long way towards decreasing the public’s confidence in the civil judicial system. But, regardless of your view of our system, it is impossible to argue that this is an indication of a weak system of justice. Because we have 311 million people in this country and nearly a million lawyers. Of course some of them are going to file completely insane lawsuits just like a small portion of these 311 million are going to do other things of which we strongly disapprove.