Yankees fan caught sleeping in stands suing ESPN for $10 million
By Hayden Kane
It’s not just that this New York Yankees fan was sleeping in the stands. It’s the way that he was sleeping, the way that he appeared to be catching some serious Z’s. This was no mere cat nap or harmless nodding off in the stands.
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Nope, this guy was zonked out during the middle of a Yankees game against the Boston Red Sox. The ESPN cameras caught him sleeping, at which point the guys in the booth, Dan Schulman and John Kruk, had some fun at his expense. Their comments about him included some jabs at how he could be asleep so early in the game and how uncomfortable it looked to sleep that way.
The fan, a gentleman named Andrew Rector, must have heard about the incident after the fact and gone back and watched himself on television. And when he did, he was none too happy.
Rector filed a lawsuit against ESPN on Monday for $10 million, claiming that Schulman and Kruk unleashed an “avalanche of disparaging words.” The New York Post reported the lawsuit:
"Rector admits in the Bronx Supreme Court suit that he “briefly slept” during the April 13 night game between the Yankees and their arch rivals, the Boston Red Sox.But his typo-ridden suit says Shulman and Kruk’s “false statements” include suggestions that he’s “not worthy” to be a Yankees fan and “is a fatty cow that need two seats at all time and represent symbol of failure.”"
That seems like a strained interpretation of what the announcers said, but you can watch the video for yourself and decide. A video of the incident, as posted by MLB.com on their YouTube channel, allows any fan to see and hear the moment for themselves.
The comments seem to be harmless teasing for something that warrants teasing, but if Rector has his way it will be up to a court to decide if they were harmless or not.
Check out video of the sleeping incident below.