A Yankees fan who was caught on camera napping at an April 13 game has filed a $10 million suit for alleged defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The suit filed on behalf of fan Andrew Robert Rector claims the ESPN announcers “unleashed [an] avalanche of disparaging words” about him, implying that he doesn’t understand the rivalry between the Yankees and the Red Sox. Courthouse News Service has a story, later picked up by the Smoking Gun, the New York Post and the New York Times.
The clip was posted on Major League Baseball’s website the next day, resulting in more “vituperative utterances,” the suit says. On the clip, announcer Dan Shulman says “this guy’s oblivious” while announcer John Kruk says “this is not the place you come to sleep.” Words used, the suit says, included “fat, unintelligent, stupid”; the Times says the announcers did not use such words in the posted clip
