Fan who fell asleep during Yankees-Red Sox game suing for $10 million

[5teamparlay]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-b...sox-game-suing-for--10-million-203033996.html
[h=1]Fan who fell asleep during Yankees-Red Sox game suing for $10 million[/h]<cite class="byline vcard top-line">By Mike Oz <abbr>7 hours ago</abbr></cite> Big League Stew

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A New York Yankees fan is hoping that a mid-game nap could net him $10 million.
Andrew Rector, 26, fell asleep during the April 13 game between the Yankees and the rival Boston Red Sox. It was nationally televised on ESPN, and Rector was noticed by cameras and talked about by commentators John Kruk and Dan Shulman.
Video of Rector — titled "Tired fan naps in the stands" — was then published to MLB.com and YouTube. People on the Internet made fun of Rector (shocking, right?) and now he's filed a defamation lawsuit against the Yankees, MLB, ESPN, Kruk and Shulman. Rector is seeking $10 million in damages after the "unending verbal crusade."
The lawsuit is a doozy. The Smoking Gun has a copy, if you'd like to read it. It alleges:

"Announcers like Dan Shulman and John Kruck [sic] unleashed avalanche of disparaging words against the person of and concerning the plaintiff. These words, include but not limited to 'stupor, fatty, unintelligent, stupid' knowing and intending the same to be heard and listened to by millions of people all over the world."
​

In many places, the lawsuit reads like a jumbled mess, with passages such as:

"The defendant Major league Baseball continually repeated these vituperative utterances against the plaintiff on the major league baseball web site the next day. These words and its insinuations presented the plaintiff as symbol of anything but failure.
​

"The defendant MLB.Com continued the onslaught to a point of comparing the plaintiff to someone of a confused state of mind, disgusted disgruntled and unintelligent and probably intellectually bankrupt individual."
​

Thing is, the ESPN broadcast didn't say any of the things alleged in Rector's suit. Kruk and Shulman did make fun of him a bit — saying a ballpark isn't the place to sleep and saying he was "oblivious" — but it was hardly "the avalanche of disparaging words."
Instead, it sounds like Rector's suit is including what online commenters said about him, and thus he's trying to blame the Yankees, ESPN and MLB for the reaction in the comment section. That's a precedent that would turn the Internet upside down, if it were to hold up in court, which doesn't seem at all likely.
One part of the lawsuit calls out MLB for using a picture of two men kissing to imply that Rector is gay under the headline "Sleeping Yankees fan cares not for your rivalry talk." However, that's clearly from parody site NotSportcenter and not MLB.com.
Seems like this whole idea is just a vicious cycle. Rector filed a lawsuit because people poked fun at him on the Internet and now, after reading about the lawsuit, they're just going to poke fun at him some more.

 

[pocketrockets]

If i sued for every time I fell asleep watching a baseball game, I'd be suing for $200 million

 

[Soriano12]

Maybe Shulman & Kruck should just file a countersuit for defamation because the suit alleges that they used words they never actually used.

 

[Willie99]

you can always find an attorney looking to make a cheap buck

write a letter, file a lawsuit based on being humiliated which might have a shred of truth to it, and settle for way way way less

earn a few K with a couple of hours of work





PS: not a legal opinion boys, have no idea if there's precedent and I'm not condoning his actions. So for those of you I somehow managed to offend, let me apologize in advance

 

[VIEJODINOSAUR]

Candidate for Sleep Apnea.....

 

[PatsFanatic]

I love how people think they deserve to get paid for an embarrassing moment they did to themselves.

Good luck buddy Loser!@#0

 

[SECplayer]

The fact that he's attempting to attribute to espn and mlb and the announcers what other message board posters later said about him is ridiculous. It's been held time and time again that you can't hold the entity responsible for what others say and post. If that was the case, Facebook, twitter, yelp, yahoo, trip advisor, etc would be non-existent.

 

[Acebb]

How about this bozo worry about how fat he is for being 26 rather than what someone said about him on the Internet?

He should go jogging.

 

[StevieRay]

Special need kids sure are touchy

 

[Haystacks]

How about this bozo worry about how fat he is for being 26 rather than what someone said about him on the Internet?

He should go jogging.

he says you should stop gambling your paycheck away every week.

 

[5teamparlay]

http://nypost.com/2015/09/30/judge-tosses-sleeping-yankees-fans-lawsuit-against-espn/

[h=1]Judge tosses sleeping Yankees fan’s lawsuit against ESPN[/h]By Laura Italiano

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Andrew Rector was seen on ESPN snoozing during a Yankees-Red Sox game. Photo: Robert Kalfus (left)

A judge has tossed the $10 million defamation lawsuit of a drowsy Yankees fan who sued ESPN for mocking him on air when he fell asleep in his seat during a home game.
Used car salesman Andrew Rector had claimed that ESPN announcers Dan Shulman and ​former Major Leaguer ​John Kruk defamed him by showing his image and riffing on the lop-headed, dead-to-the-world nap he took during a July 2014 ​Yankees-​Red Sox game.
The judge agreed that Shulman and Kruk did marvel at Rector’s ability to sleep through the standing ovation that followed a Carlos Beltran homer, and made a passing comparison to the sleeping fan’s girth and that of the hefty Kruk.
But Rector was on camera for only a total of 31 seconds, the judge noted in her decision, first reported by The Smoking Gun.

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The announcer’s comments lasted barely longer than a minute, and did not rise to the level of defamation, which requires “extreme and outrageous conduct [which] intentionally or recklessly causes severe emotional distress to another,” wrote the judge, Bronx Supreme Court Justice Julia Rodriguez.
Rector had further argued in his lawsuit that Major League Baseball “set the stage” for others to mock and defame him by posting the clip of his napping online, allowing commenters had a field day. But MLB made no defamatory statements directly, Rodriguez ruled in dismissing the suit.
“Clearly, nothing shown or said which can be attributed to any of the defendants during the Telecast, on MLB.com or on YouTube concerning the Plaintiff rises to the level of an act of extreme and outrageous conduct,” she wrote.
The judge’s ruling means Rector won’t get a hoped-for cash settlement. His lawyer, Valentine Okwara, could not immediately be reached for comment.

 

[CoachCB]

What a retard!

George Costanza should have sued when they caught him on tv scarfing down the ice cream while he was at the tennis match! It cost him a relationship! Then his date wanted to "sweep" with the other dude at the party!! It was tragic. Well worth a $10 million lawsuit!

 

[TheComputerGroup]

In today's world, if there's a camera around, you can't get away with anything......ESPN can not be held accountable for what people said on the internet about this guy.

 

[festeringZit]

The judge did the right thing in tossing this stupid lawsuit. What a waste of time and money.

 

[OneZero]

What a retard!

George Costanza should have sued when they caught him on tv scarfing down the ice cream while he was at the tennis match! It cost him a relationship! Then his date wanted to "sweep" with the other dude at the party!! It was tragic. Well worth a $10 million lawsuit!

^ that was outstanding. Great reference/post.

 

[Redagger029]

The guys got a better chance in court suing his parents for raising such a stupid kid.

 

[Willie99]

I loved Imus showing a video of Trump eating all day long when sitting behind home plate at the old stadium

Hot dogs and all