Pretty much unrelated, but needs to be said

I've been listening to AM sports radio for the past couple of days while archiving Equal Protection/Fourteenth Amendment law reviews. Franklin's impending arrival has me working double-time on the dissertation, and the long hours would drive me crazy if I didn't have a little white noise running in the background. Sure, AM sports radio is repetitive, mindless chatter, but that's what makes it the perfect non-distraction. Anyway, I'm listening to AM sports radio all morning, and now again this afternoon. The big story? In last night's game between New York and Boston at Fenway, Yankees rightfielder Gary Sheffield got into a minor altercation with a fan after chasing a ball to the edge of the stands along the rightfield line. The footage of the skirmish has been on high rotation all day. I've seen the footage, and it's pretty clear what happened: As Sheffield is running down a ball that's dribbling down the rightfield line, bearing down on the stands in rightfield, a fan swings his arm, gesturing. Whatever you think about his intent, this part is HUGE: he was not taking a swing at Sheffield, trying to knock his hat off, or even just going for a souvenir ball, as some apologists have suggested. HE IS GESTURING. As the camera closes in on him, you can clearly see that he is turned away from Sheffield and the play, looking in the direction of the guy next to him. His arm is swinging down as Sheffield closes in on the ball, and by sheer fucking coincidence they make slight contact. Sheffield goes berserk. He later explains that he got socked in the mouth, and that he was totally freaked out. He says that he almost snapped, as his cocked arm and clenched fist indicate, but he thought about the consequences and caught himself at the last second.

Let me say at the outset that Sheffield did have a right to be pissed - not because of the fan whose hand swiped his face, but because in the ensuing melee another fan dumped a beer on him. Of course, nobody is mentioning the jackass who poured a beer on Shef. Everyone is so preoccupied by the alleged "punch" that they totally miss the more egregious act of the beer-spilling moron. So, the poor guy who inadvertantly swiped Sheffield gets the boot and is universally vilified on AM sports radio, while Sheffield is celebrated as some kind of hero for not going off half-cocked and climbing into the fans Artest-style. This is ridiculous, and further proof that the cretins who call in to AM sports radio shows should be forcibly sterilized for the good of humanity.

Like I told you, it's pretty much unrelated, but it needed to be said.