Los Angeles Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon was caught in a physical confrontation with an Athletics fan at Thursday’s opener in Oakland.
In a video that has since gone viral, the 32-year-old native Texan is seen grabbing the fan’s shirt before swinging and missing at the man as the Angels walked into the clubhouse following their 2-1 loss to the A’s.
‘What did you say?’ Rendon asked while grabbing the front-row fan by his shirt. ‘You called me a b****, huh?’
The man is heard denying Rendon’s accusation, but the Angels star wasn’t hearing it.
‘Yeah you did, yeah you did, mother*****’ Rendon said before taking an open-handed swipe at the A’s fan, who tells him to ‘calm down.’
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1. salvomania Posted: March 31, 2023 at 04:22 PM (#6122047)Edit: Actually, on second thought Rendon's actions were totally fine. Screw loud mouths like this.
I have seen players shoot daggers at the wrong fan who they thought shouted a disgusting comment at them.
I'll never forget walking out of Madison Square Garden many years ago when Tim Tuefel, then on the Mets, was on walking down the stairs in front of me with his wife when some animal behind me shouted "Tuefel Sucks!" Other than perhaps having greater economic exposure resulting from a civil suit than most, I see no reason Tueful shouldn't have walked up and clocked this guy.
Hard disagree, except for that last part. Rendon is a performer; that's why his compensation is like that.
You can't have your performers assaulting paying customers, whether you put on circuses at county fairs or big-league games.
If someone tells me I suck in public, it doesn't justify me physically assaulting them. There are some things that could be said which might justify such a reaction (i.e., racial slurs), being called a \"#####\" isn't one of them IMO.
Not to condone Rendon's actions, but...we've created quite a society here, where someone can insult another person for hours, and the second that person finally can't take it anymore and gets in their face about it, out come the cameras and it's "Look what this guy did to me!!" People suck.
Players have been heckled pretty much as long as the game has been around. Most of them know not to react physically. A few game suspension for Rendon seems appropriate.
Fan should probably be ejected (I know, the game was already over, but still) for using that kind of language as well.
This.
Get the fan ejected and banned from the stadium. I'm pretty sure that kind of heckling violates the conditions of entry.
I think when they settle out of court they will have to agree to keep letting him come to games.
...and then finds Steven Adler puking and stoned to the beejesus in an alley and figures "Well, he's famous. That's another piece to the band".
Agree, context please, this is tame compared to my memories...
For a real altercation, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xtHJXXJVUU
Does this guy have a partner? Parents? Kids? What would they think? If I knew someone who did stuff like that, I'd be embarrassed.
Yes, Rendon should've just walked on by, but geez what kind of society do we live in whereby people can just talk to other people like sh*t? It's appalling.
this is a really interesting comment, Dave, because racial slurs obviously are at another level and "you suck!" is crude but, c'mon.
am thinking about where \"#####\" ranks there. possibly some men would find that more enraging than others.
and no, I'm not justifying Rendon's actions. but I think it is worth talking about what level insult this is on the grand scale. I'm not sure.
and yes, this fan is a ######### - and if he becomes "famous" because of this - well, if you can't do the time.....
But "beetch" is mid-level when it comes to insults. I can't imagine most ballplayers haven't heard worse.
Also, why Rendon? He's always been a pretty innocuous player.
Such as?
Ty Cobb was suspended for 10 games when he attacked a fan.
Back around 1980 or 1981, Cesar Cedeno leaped into the stands in Atlanta and pummeled a fan who had been heckling him all night (and apparently the previous night as well). Cedeno got kicked out of the game, of course, but I don't remember how long the suspension was after that (if any).
Rendon's punch didn't come anywhere near that level.
Frank Francisco was suspended for the remainder of the 2004 season after throwing a chair at an A's fan (and hitting the fan's wife). It also precipitated one of the more heated BTF threads.
Gary Sheffield got zero games for pushing a fan at Fenway who had leaned over the railing trying to get a ball in play, scraping Sheff in the process.
So, I don't know what Rendon will get.
Yeah, but Cobb climbed into the stands, ran up several rows, and started actually beating on the guy. Also, the guy had no hands.
Rendon's actions are not even in the same time zone.
Concur. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
I also think there's a difference between insults that are basically "you're bad at baseball" (I put "you suck" in that category) and personal insults.
Cobb was suspended (leading to the Al Travers game before Ban Johnson backed off) and Ruth got suspended (one of either 4 or 5 suspensions that year -- sources give different numbers), fined $200, stripped of the Yankee captaincy (by order of Landis)
So fans have always heckled. At one time it was more common for players to respond with violence. And the league has never been OK about this.
It's a much more civilized way to heckle.
Disagree 100%. Players should never reach into the stands to put hands on a fan in anger. Never. Not ever. Not for any reason. A fan reaches onto the field to put hands on a player and 99.9% of the time they end up in handcuffs. The penalty for players should be equally harsh in terms of a suspension. Baseball doesn’t need a Ron Artest incident.
I agree completely and I can't really see the mindset of those who think Rendon was justified. He is the performer. He's got to have performance discipline. The relevance of his $245M contract – or even minimum salary these days, which is vastly more than almost any fan earns – is that you get paid to ignore verbal abuse. Obviously the stadium personnel can set a limit on such abuse and escort certain fans out – but let security deal with that part.
Snapper is being deliberately obtuse in order to provoke people or whatever it is he gets out of this. Clearly an organized sport making billions of dollars cannot go around letting its stars just grab whoever they want to by shirt collar and give them a good dressing down. Thats not how it works in any professional sense, be it sports or business.
Snapper clearly knows this, so grow the #### up.
I don't think anyone is condoning how Rendon responded. It was unacceptable and he should cop a fine and short suspension.
What myself and others are saying is just because you purchase a ticket to a game, doesn't give you cart blanche to shout any obscenities you want at any player at any time. No one should behaving like that anyway, it's despicable.
As pointed out above, this isn't "hey Hunter Pence removes the label off mattresses" level of cheekiness, it's just darn offensive and I'm sure the fan wouldn't say that to Rendon if he was passing him in the street.
If you're not bold enough to say something to someone's face, then you should keep your mouth shut.
More positively, I was at an early-season game in Houston in the early 80s and Joe Niekro came up to bat. He was hitting .294 or something. My friend yells at him (we were in the box seats), "Hey Joe, if you get a hit here, you'll be batting .300!" Joe heard him and chuckled hard enough he had to back off the plate.
Joe didn't get a hit. :(
Snapper clearly knows this, so grow the #### up.
Rendon shouldn't do it, but I don't give give two shits that he did. He should get a $500 fine.
the fan said (and his wife agreed) that he goes to ballgames and sits right behind the opposition dugout JUST and ONLY so as he can scream insults t players
that is one sorry creature. not real too much of a man a tall. like i said back 20 years ago you don't see any kind of females doing that
this guy vs rendon is just as sorry
and of course rendon is not allowed to touch a fan no matter how bad he has it coming and those wanna be tough guys got it coming. of course rendon needs to get fined/suspended. you can't have the players getting physical with the fans
remember that old bugs bunny (i think) cartoon where the boy keeps poking the tiger in a cage with a stick? i know it is not real too Christian of me but theres sure times i wish the ballpark hecklers and internet goons suddenly discovered the tigers cage ain't got no bars
Disagree 100%. Players should never reach into the stands to put hands on a fan in anger. Never. Not ever. Not for any reason.
I think if a fan makes contact with a player and the player responds proportionately, that's ok. Sheffield wasn't punished for swiping back at a fan in the heat of the moment, and I think that was the right decision.
If he had gone into the stands and pummeled the guy that would not have been ok.
Has there been any further reporting on what the fan did or said? Because it seems like something of an overreaction if all he said was \"#####\" (or "Beeyatch").
I mean, Rendon has been to New York, right? He has to have heard much worse, and there is no record of him going off there.
from the comments, I get the feeling that it's a different story in other locales, which I find interesting.
not justifying Rendon's actions, obviously. but to me, that word - like others even worse - seems designed to provoke a reaction.
I think we are in accord on "You suck" being pretty much standard issue insulting. the shouter not exactly covering himself in glory there, but it seems unlikely to provoke anything physical and probably even elicit a "F you" response only rarely.
"Nice catch last night Bruce" to Mr. Boisclair after he dropped a foul ball the night before. If a certain keyboard warrior were not safely ensconced in the Pavilion and Mr. B's teammate had not restrained Mr. B from jumping into the stands (by wrapping his arms around Mr. B's waist as he began to scale the outfield wall), that certain keyboard warrior would not be around today (maybe a net benefit). Look, no swearing, no bad language, just a little thankful acknowledgement of great play
Here is the game:
Mets Bow, 5‐3, After an Error On ‘Last’ Out
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/07/25/archives/mets-bow-53-after-an-error-on-last-out-mets-fall-to-dodgers-53.html
As to Rendon, is his last name really Bevacqua? Because I would like to know what Tommy Lasanga felt about throwing at Rendon (who is starting to hit like Bevacqua). The Angels need some more tax breaks.
We don't know that the fan did or said anything. All we do know is what Rendon did and said. Earlier, I referenced the infamous Ron Artest incident in 2004. Artest went into the stands and attacked a fan who he thought had thrown a beer at him, when in fact the fan who Artest went after had done nothing. In this case Rendon apparently thought that this particular fan had hurled some ugly epithets his way during the game. But we have no idea if that fan (or any fan) said anything of the kind. Maybe Rendon misheard a relatively benign heckle by this fan, or something else that had nothing to do with him. Maybe Rendon was indeed the target of an ugly epithet, but from a completely different fan. Who knows? I'm assuming if such an insult was audible on the field of play then it was also audible to numerous other fans, ushers, and attendants in the stands. I don't know what the policy is in Oakland, but when I've gone to games in Tampa, Baltimore, and Detroit they make a point of warning fans that unruly behavior can result in them being removed from the park. If a fan is being truly abusive then that's a job for security, not some hot head in a baseball uniform.
fwiw, I've lived in the the greater NYC area all my life, and I would consider beeyatch to be quite high on the scale of "fighting words."
I agree, it's higher on the list, but it's definitely below the threshold where a player should be permitted to respond physically, or in general where a grown man shouldn't be able to restrain himself from doing so.
Yeah, but Cobb climbed into the stands, ran up several rows, and started actually beating on the guy. Also, the guy had no hands.
If the Rendon thing leads to the Angels sending out a group of sandlot schoolboys (including a future priest) into a game, I will literally die laughing...!
I get that apes and adolescents can understand words, but I'd put scale-reading beyond them.
If he calls you a "faggot" its all out war.
it was just a few months ago that I finished work early on a Thursday or Friday, so I stopped in at a local chain restaurant for the early part of happy hour.
I asked the bartender if he could put the Golf Channel on one of the TVs (I'm in a season-long golf pool - don't judge me !). for whatever reason, they put it on the TV directly to my left. ok, whatever.
so I'm watching the golf, and 20 minutes later another solo comes in and sits directly under the TV. So I'm back-and-forth watching and not watching - and this angers the guy sitting under the TV.
he asks, "What are you looking at?" and before I could explain - and frankly, make him look silly - he says, "Are you one of those 'faggots' or something?"
I pointed up to the TV and to my printout of my golf pool standings (hey, I'm old), but he didn't seem satisfied.
I bring the story up not only because there is the word oosted here, but because I haven't heard that word - or others like it - in real life in decades (thankfully). Only a handful of customers and I think two employees heard it.
Everyone who did hear it was in shock, basically (again, thankfully. I guess we have made some progress after all).
the bartender put the golf on the TV in my direct line of sight, so I didn't have to "look" at the guy again. I heard him mutter that same word again under his breath. When I finished up, I mentioned the latter point to the manager - who had heard the incident.
"Good," he said, "I was looking for an excuse to throw him out."
I would hope that in retrospect, he wishes he had done that immediately.
I think you could make a pretty good case that if Anthony Rendon drops $500 from his pocket onto the sidewalk, it would not make economic sense for him to take the time and effort to pick it up.
But he absolutely should never use a coupon again.
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