The Sleeping Yankee Fan Is Not Alone, But His Hilarious Lawsuit Is

It's easy to picture it happening: You head to a baseball game with a couple of pals, you fall asleep in the fourth inning, ESPN's cameras find you, and the announcers make fun of your passed-out ass.

Maybe that sounds far-fetched, but fans fall asleep at games all the time. Two fans dozed off at a Reds game in May. Two Yankees fans were sleeping at a game in June. An Indians fan was somehow drumming while passed out that same week. In February, a 76ers fan was fast asleep courtside. This is a worldwide trend, too. In June fans dozed off during the World Cup, the Monaco GP, and even the the annual Topshelf Open in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.

Conked-out fans happen much more often than, say, triple plays. But not all of them go as viral as the video of a Yankees fan sleeping in the 4th inning—FOURTH INNING!—of a May 12 game against the Red Sox.

There were a lot of reasons for its virality: It was ESPN's marquee Sunday Night Baseball game featuring the biggest rivalry in baseball, the announcers took time out to make fun of him and it was only the fourth inning. Plus, he's a Yankees fan! Everyone who's not a Yankees fan loves making fun of the Yankees and their insufferable fans. Sleeping fans may be common, but this one was particularly funny. MLB.com even posted the napping fan as a highlight.

Andrew Rector, the fan who fell asleep at that Yanks-Sox game, wasn't laughing though and recently filed suit against ESPN, Major League Baseball, ESPN announcers Dan Shulman and John Kruk, and even his beloved Yankees. The suit, filed in Bronx County Supreme Court, seeks $10 million for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Even if you feel the suit's without merit, it's easy to feel for Rector just because he had the unfortunate luck to be caught by ESPN cameras on a nationally televised game, and has since become the most infamous of the many hibernating sports fans of 2014. Sure, it was in the fourth inning, but the Yankees and Red Sox play the longest games in baseball. He could have been catching 40 winks before the game went for another four hours. (That Yanks-Sox game actually clocked in at a respectable 3 hours, 8 minutes.) Sorry, Andy.

But if Rector is looking to not be made fun of, this lawsuit isn't going to help. It reads like one of those phony lawsuits filed by Jonathan Lee Riches. Actually, it's worse: Riches' lawsuits, while nonsensical, are more well-written than this one. Courthouse News Service, which broke the lawsuit story, was overly charitable: "The writing style of the lawsuit is idiosyncratic. Quotations in this article are as in the complaint."

Quotations in this article are as in the complaint as well, including: "ESPN Cameras focused on the plaintiff, Announcers like Dan Shulman and John Kruck 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 to be heard and listened to by millions of people all over the world, including people that know the plaintiff in person or interacted with the plaintiff." (One aspect the lawsuit didn't note: Shulman said that "this guy is oblivious to how good" MLB.tv is. The sharpest knife of all!)

The suit says Rector was similarly defamed by MLB: "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." And for Kruk, spelled incorrectly again: "John Kruck in his verbal attack insinuated that the plaintiff is individual that know neither history nor understood beauty or rivalry between Boston Red Sox and New York Yankee."

The lawsuit reads as if it were written by someone with a religious prohibition against using articles.

The suit also claims ESPN and MLB's statements led to defamation across the Internet, with "pictures and captions like 'Sleeping Yankee fan cares not for your Rivalry Talk.'" A Google search brings up only results to the lawsuit, which means "Sleeping Yankee fan cares not for your Rivalry Talk" is up for grabs as a real headline to use the next time someone falls asleep at a Red Sox-Yankees game.

Courthouse News Service detailed some of the abuse Rector says was hurled at him due to his snoozy evening at the ballpark:

"Plaintiff is a fatty cow that need two seats at all time and represent symbol of failure."
"Plaintiff is a confused disgusted and socially bankrupt individual."
"Plaintiff is so stupid that he cannot differentiate between his house and public place by snoozing throughout the fourth inning of the Yankee game."

But by far the best part of the lawsuit comes near the end, where Rector is suddenly worried about people thinking he's gay:

"Plaintiff alleges that MLB. Com, juxtapositions of photos and text of two men kissing each other and caption 'sleeping Yankee's Fan cares not for your rivalry talk' falsely implied that plaintiff engaged in that type of conduct described or portrayed by the picture. In light of all of the surrounding circumstances."

In light of all the surrounding circumstances, it's safe to say Rector's not going to get his $10 million. But the lawsuit sheds light on a danger of going to a Yankees game: There's a chance you'll do something stupid and the TV announcers will make fun of you. It happened to George Costanza while eating ice cream and it happened to a comfortably snoozing Andrew Rector.

Next time you head to the ballpark, take a caffeine pill or slug Red Bulls beforehand just to be safe.

[h/t Black Sports Online]