11/21/24
May 06, 2008
Yankees fan kills Red Sox fan.:
posted by Joey Michaels to baseball at 02:44 AM - 31 comments
Considering the libations were flowing, the real story is "drunk lady plows into crowd of bar goers." "Yankee fan kills Red Sox fan" is just a catchier subtext of the story.
posted by jerseygirl at 04:53 AM on May 06, 2008
What jerseygirl said. When people get drunk and mean, they'll pretty much fix on anything about their antagonist that's different from them and/or that can be used to rally others to their side. It could have been the song selection someone picked on the jukebox. There is a more positive bit at the end of the story, which is that the deceased man's organs were donated. Given that he was young and, I assume, healthy, this donation may end up saving several lives.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:00 AM on May 06, 2008
Regrdless of why this happened, this is just sad. I, like all of you here on SpoFi, love sports and have my favorite team as well but in no way, shape or form would I ever do something so awful like this. This is a tragic situation that very well could have been avoided with a little common sense and self-control. She indicated to police that she wanted to scare this group of people. She thought they would get out of the way" Well...they didn't, now did they? I just hope that the inmates of the prison that she's going to are all Red Sox fans and actually show this lady just how scared she should be. *
posted by BornIcon at 07:15 AM on May 06, 2008
Well...they didn't, now did they? I just hope that the inmates of the prison that she's going to are all Red Sox fans and actually show this lady just how scared she should be. I hope she gets rehab. Otherwise she'll just keep reacting to confrontations, particularly threatening ones where it's a group against her, with violence.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:44 AM on May 06, 2008
jerseygirl has it right. This is nothing more than a tragic story of what alcohol abuse can lead to. The original story is here. The woman has been charged with murder, and is currently being held without bail. All of the above links are from the local Nashua, NH, Telegraph. I had thought about posting this, but until Sports Illustrated got hold of it, I assumed it was of local interest only. It is only peripherally related to sports. As far as prison life in NH goes, the Women's Prison in Goffstown is not a real fun place, but the inmates there do not tend to violence against one another. I have several friends who volunteer in the prison ministry there, and they say that most of the women are interested only in getting out of there and back to their lives.
posted by Howard_T at 08:49 AM on May 06, 2008
I just hope that the inmates of the prison that she's going to are all Red Sox fans and actually show this lady just how scared she should be. I hope she gets rehab. Otherwise she'll just keep reacting to confrontations, particularly threatening ones where it's a group against her, with violence. I hope you both get what you want, though from a quick search, it appears that BornIcon has a better chance of it. Seems the prison is overcrowded, and lacking in counseling services. Nothing good happens after 1:00 AM.
posted by dviking at 09:14 AM on May 06, 2008
Joey, hanks for posting this. I had wanted to earlier when I had 1st seen it but SpoFi wouldn't let me (Apparently I haven't posted enough times to be granted the privilege of starting a thread). My neighbor and I rib each other all the time (he's a Yanks fan, I'm a Sox fan), but we would never take it to such an extreme. This is truly tragic, and I am genuinely surprised that today's sensationalist media has picked this up and run with it. My condolences to all of the families involved. Pathetic- to take a life because of a sports rivalry. It was almost certainly more alcohol induced than anything, but it was still pathetic. Yet another reason why I won't go to bars anymore, or drink for that matter.
posted by crqri at 10:32 AM on May 06, 2008
What jerseygirl said. When people get drunk and mean, they'll pretty much fix on anything about their antagonist that's different from them and/or that can be used to rally others to their side. It could have been the song selection someone picked on the jukebox. I don't know. I have had a few circumstances where someone else took far too seriously friendly banter about sports. There is certainly something about sports more than music that brings out the tribalism in people. I'm not at all arguing that alcohol doesn't aid in bad judgement, but I think this story is a pretty good illustration of the kind of people that take sports rivalries way too seriously.
posted by bperk at 10:58 AM on May 06, 2008
Damn. What the hell is going on with the world that stupid shit about sports gets taken too far and somebody dies over it. I'm guessing that alcohol must have played a huge part in what happened.
posted by Scars at 01:38 PM on May 06, 2008
This is a true testaments about one of the many things that's wrong with this world! We idolize Sports Figures, Teams, Entertainers... to the point where rational thought goes out the window. I'm not saying that alcohol wasn't a factor, but we all know that heated arguments take place ALL the time over things that really don't affect us at all. This chick had issues NO QUESTION but is it really hard to believ that it happned? I am from MA. and I see things that could very easily escalate to something like this on a regular basis. C'MON PEOPLE!!! If you dont see the actual players of these teams fighting each other, why should we?
posted by emancipated107 at 02:33 PM on May 06, 2008
Bill Cosby referred to cocaine use in a joke once where a friend of his said that it enhanced your personality. To which he replied "Well, what if you're an asshole?" I think in regards to alcohol, the same can sometimes be said. Not to say that this woman was a homicidal maniac, but that she probably was a rather rotten and spiteful person to begin with. The alcohol just served to remove her sense of right and wrong. She'll probably get an opportunity to work on her personality deficiencies courtesy of the judicial system.
posted by THX-1138 at 02:36 PM on May 06, 2008
If you dont see the actual players of these teams fighting each other, why should we? How soon we forget.
posted by jerseygirl at 02:45 PM on May 06, 2008
People making 30 to 40 grand a year fighting over primadonnas making millions a year, doesn't make much sense. I guess the only good thing about ticket prices being so high, is that the average sports nut guy or girl that might do this kind of thing can't afford to go to the ballpark anymore. Unfortunately, they can still afford to go to the bar.
posted by MGDADDYO at 03:21 PM on May 06, 2008
This is a true testaments about one of the many things that's wrong with this world! We idolize Sports Figures, Teams, Entertainers... to the point where rational thought goes out the window. I kind of disagreed with what bperk said earlier, and I really disagree with this. I don't know that we can say that this is a true testament to anything, yet. Details are sketchy. What we know is that the warring parties seized on their fan-dom, to whatever degree, of two rival sports teams as the basis for drawing the lines between them. We don't know how the dispute started or what it was really all about. Maybe somebody owed somebody else money. Maybe somebody was somebody else's ex, or was dating somebody else's ex. Maybe somebody dinged somebody else's car in the parking lot. All of these seem a lot more plausible than that some kind of misplaced team loyalty was the sole or the main driver behind this dispute.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 03:33 PM on May 06, 2008
Very sad for the families of both the victim and the perpetrator in what appears to be yet another senseless act of violance. On the surface it appears that the yankee fan (in red sox country) came to argue, and left with her feelings hurt. I don't buy that she only meant to scare the crowd outside the bar using her vehicle as the "warning" device. She might as well have pulled out a gun and shot the victim. So stupid was she that she'll probalby spend the next 10-20 years of her life thinking about how she got drunk and killed someone over something as meaningless as a sports rivalry. The only silver lining is the donation of the victims organs to transform his death into a living legacy.
posted by RW0958 at 04:06 PM on May 06, 2008
The Nashua Telegraph articles I linked previously give enough detail to determine that the woman had been in a previous altercation with another woman (not involved in the vehicle incident). The argument over the Sox - Yankees started in the bar, and the young man who was killed continued yelling "Yankees suck" as the woman got into her car. From what I can gather from the reporting, the woman was drunk, spoiling for a fight, and not too willing to walk away. Had someone had the presence of mind to call law enforcement after the first incident (there are patrols in the downtown area, and the main police station is about 5 minutes drive away), the woman probably would have been arrested on a drunk and disorderly charge before anything drastic happened. One can try to make the argument that the Sox fans should have just shut up, or that the woman should have let it go. Both arguments are true, but the combination of alcohol and aggressiveness will usually lead to a similar result. Does this have anything to do with sports? Only in the fact that the argument was about Sox - Yankees has anything to do with sport. It could have been Obama - Clinton, dogs vs cats, or the color of your socks. It's tragic and oh so avoidable, but the circumstances almost dictated that this happen.
posted by Howard_T at 04:28 PM on May 06, 2008
I guess the only good thing about ticket prices being so high, is that the average sports nut guy or girl that might do this kind of thing can't afford to go to the ballpark anymore. Unfortunately, they can still afford to go to the bar. Rich people don't fight? Really? I learn something every day. Thank you.
posted by justgary at 04:39 PM on May 06, 2008
She should be punished as severely as if she put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger.
posted by Shotput at 05:19 PM on May 06, 2008
Shotput: Amen brother. I remember this poem from years ago called "Carmageddon" (long before the video game.) It had a bit about beating someone to death with a piece of metal getting you a long time in prison, but if you attach it to a car then hit them with it, the punishment is far less. I agree entirely. The car was used as a weapon. No different than a gun.
posted by Drood at 05:28 PM on May 06, 2008
but if you attach it to a car then hit them with it, the punishment is far less In California, a lot of DA"s are filing it as felony assault with a deadly weapon in an attempt to discourage fan (road) rage incidents.
posted by irunfromclones at 06:24 PM on May 06, 2008
Nothing new about that -- "a shod foot" has been classified as a deadly weapon.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:30 PM on May 06, 2008
Idiots, but have you been to a childs sporting event in the last 25 years?
posted by thatch at 08:23 PM on May 06, 2008
Several actually.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 09:34 PM on May 06, 2008
Wow, she had to have that car moving pretty quick to put a hole in the windshield that big from hitting him. The pic is on the link from Howard T's above post. It also sounds like the poor guy did not die right away too boot. This lady is in a world of sh!&, and deservedly so. However, it kind of makes you wonder, how little was there in her life that she could go and do something like this and give the rest up so easily? The one article said she had a teenage daughter I believe. It's really sad on both ends of this story.
posted by jojomfd1 at 12:11 AM on May 07, 2008
Bill Cosby referred to cocaine use in a joke once where a friend of his said that it enhanced your personality. To which he replied "Well, what if you're an asshole?" I think that you may be paraphrasing what he actually said because Bill Cosby has never used profane language in his stand-up routine. I get your what you mean though.
posted by BornIcon at 06:53 AM on May 07, 2008
"Well, what if you're an asshole? "
posted by jerseygirl at 08:29 AM on May 07, 2008
Much obliged, JG.
posted by THX-1138 at 08:32 AM on May 07, 2008
No kidding? Thanks for the knowledge JG. I was under the impression that Bill Cosby was very clean during his tenure as a stand-up comic from all that's been said about him from other comics and from what I've seen firsthand. My apologies THX-1138.
posted by BornIcon at 08:34 AM on May 07, 2008
No harm, BI.
posted by THX-1138 at 08:45 AM on May 07, 2008
posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:25 PM on May 07, 2008
Yeah, this is pretty sad and could just as easily have been "Red Sox fan kills Yankees fan." Sympathy to the friends and families of everyone involved in this sorry story, regardless of team affiliation.