http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/ne...-boot-at-trop-for-'yankees-suck'-shirt-052611
Man gets boot from Trop over 'Yankees suck' shirt
Updated: Thursday, 26 May 2011, 6:11 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 26 May 2011, 5:53 AM EDT
ST. PETERSBURG - If you’ve been to a sporting event, it’s likely you’ve heard the popular chant yelled at the opposing team.
In fact, just a few nights ago, as the Tampa Bay Lightning battled the Boston Bruins, the crowd at the St. Pete Times Forum yelled it.
We’ll give you a hint: It’s a four-letter word that starts with an “S,” and it’s commonly used in place of the word “stink.”
The term is commonly used these days at professional sporting events, so when Melton Little, a local attorney, wore a shirt that said “Yankees suck” to a recent Tampa Bay Rays game, he didn’t think there would be a problem.
He was wrong. It seems security at Tropicana Field had a big problem with it.
Despite being an avid Rays fan and a season ticket holder since 1998, Little was booted from the Trop for refusing to remove the shirt.
“I was sitting in a group of Yankees fans and in the first four innings I heard a lot worse words than suck,” he said.
Little said a security guard walked up to him and demanded he turn the shirt inside out, get a new shirt or leave. He was at the game with his two sons May 15, and he said he was in disbelief by the move.
The claim was that the shirt was profane and obscene.
So much so that he’s written a letter to the Rays’ management to officially launch a complaint about the policy.
Little said he bought the T-shirt outside Boston’s Fenway Park, where Red Sox fans are more than prone to take a jab at the Yankees. That night, Little said thousands of fans wore the shirt freely inside the stadium.
Little has not heard back from the Rays yet.
Man gets boot from Trop over 'Yankees suck' shirt
Updated: Thursday, 26 May 2011, 6:11 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 26 May 2011, 5:53 AM EDT
ST. PETERSBURG - If you’ve been to a sporting event, it’s likely you’ve heard the popular chant yelled at the opposing team.
In fact, just a few nights ago, as the Tampa Bay Lightning battled the Boston Bruins, the crowd at the St. Pete Times Forum yelled it.
We’ll give you a hint: It’s a four-letter word that starts with an “S,” and it’s commonly used in place of the word “stink.”
The term is commonly used these days at professional sporting events, so when Melton Little, a local attorney, wore a shirt that said “Yankees suck” to a recent Tampa Bay Rays game, he didn’t think there would be a problem.
He was wrong. It seems security at Tropicana Field had a big problem with it.
Despite being an avid Rays fan and a season ticket holder since 1998, Little was booted from the Trop for refusing to remove the shirt.
“I was sitting in a group of Yankees fans and in the first four innings I heard a lot worse words than suck,” he said.
Little said a security guard walked up to him and demanded he turn the shirt inside out, get a new shirt or leave. He was at the game with his two sons May 15, and he said he was in disbelief by the move.
The claim was that the shirt was profane and obscene.
So much so that he’s written a letter to the Rays’ management to officially launch a complaint about the policy.
Little said he bought the T-shirt outside Boston’s Fenway Park, where Red Sox fans are more than prone to take a jab at the Yankees. That night, Little said thousands of fans wore the shirt freely inside the stadium.
Little has not heard back from the Rays yet.