Major League Baseball

Brett Lawrie blasts Royals fans for 'antagonizing' players

Published Apr. 22, 2015 2:36 p.m. ET

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By Steve DelVecchio

The series that the Oakland A’s and Kansas City Royals played over the weekend was as heated as it gets for mid-April. It all started Friday, when A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie took out Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar with a hard slide. Escobar called the play “dirty” after the game.

Then on Saturday, Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura drilled Lawrie with a pitch that sent an obvious message. Lawrie was thrown at again on Sunday, this time by Kelvin Herrera. Ventura was later fined by the league and Herrera suspended five games.

After the punishments were doled out on Tuesday, Lawrie was still steaming. But he wasn’t just angry with his opponents — he also took aim at Royals fans.

“The way their fans were antagonizing everything, you know, I got a first-pitch missed curveball up in my head and everyone leaps up in their seat like Bruce Buffer is about to come out,” Lawrie said, per MLB.com’s Jane Lee. “That’s not how we’re doing things.

“Shame on their fans for antagonizing everything that went on there, because that had a lot to do with it. Shame on the players and their team that went with it. I’m just glad it’s all over and we’re moving on. We don’t have to see them till June, and we’re just going to continue to go out and continue playing baseball.”

Lawrie has had a frustrating season thus far, most notably when he presented us with this horrible performance in a game a couple weeks ago. Blaming the fans is pretty lame. We all know fans want to see fireworks. Bench-clearing brawls will always be exciting. The players are adults who get paid to play baseball. The fans shouldn’t be able to “antagonize” them that easily.

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