Major League Baseball

Sleeping Yankees fan suing ESPN, MLB after getting teased during broadcast

Published Jul. 7, 2014 2:30 p.m. ET

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Brett Smiley

A Yankees fan who snoozed through a portion of New York's April 13 home win over the Red Sox is suing the Yankees, MLB, ESPN and two announcers, accusing them of defaming him during the broadcast and afterward online.

As a result of announcers John Kruk and Dan Shulman's alleged "avalanche of disparaging words" and statements published on MLB.com, 26-year-old Andrew Rector seeks $10 million in damages, alleging defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The disparaging words attributed to Kruk and Shulman and alleged to be concerning Rector include "stupor," "fatty," "unintelligent" and "stupid." In the available video showing Rector's nap (above), Kruk and Shulman do not use those words during the commentary.

Rector's complaint contains misspellings, bizarre phraseology and claims, and shows that the plaintiff is particularly upset about the purported allegations that Rector is not a die-hard Yankees fan.

Here's paragraph 11 of the complaint, unedited, courtesy of The Smoking Gun:

"Anything but failure" would seem like a good thing, but let's continue with paragraph 12:

Now paragraph 14:

Rector seems to want to remove any doubt that he is not a true Yankees fan, which is an insult tantamount to calling a man in pinstripes not a True Yankee (e.g., Alex Rodriguez).

Setting aside the merit of the allegations in the complaint, this ought to definitely prove that falling asleep at the ballpark is about as bad an idea as nodding off early in a fraternity house stocked with Sharpies and a lot of empty beer cans. For some more proof, we go to Yankee Stadium:

[H/T The Smoking Gun]

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