Sheffield Saga

For once, I'm glad ESPN is showing a replay 110,231 times. The whole situation is so ambigious, you have to see it over and over and over. It's a lot like the "Second Spitter" episode on Seinfeld with Keith Hernandez (if you haven't seen it, see it). There should a reenactment on Baseball tonight with Harold Reynolds as Sheffield (of course, because he is black), Karl Ravech is the guy that took the swipe, and John Kruk is the fat guy in the Gap sweatshirt.

Here is a link to the highlight, provided by MLB.com (definitely view the 350K version):

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050415&content_id=1016357&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Question #1: "Was the fan going for the ball, trying to be an ass, or swinging at Sheffield?"

I've been convinced of each one at some point watching the video. In the end, I think the guy was just trying to be an ass. I don't think he was going for the ball, because his hand is like 5 feet away from the ball. And I don't think he was swinging at Sheffield because he isn't even looking at Sheffield. He obviously looked drunk so what I think was going through his mind was: "Keep ball going, Red Sox score more runs..."

Question #2 (and the more interesting one): "Did that other fan intentionally throw the beer on Sheffield?"

(the guy is to the left of the swiping fan, and it's hard to see him in this video - but it's worth trying to find)

Again, I have been convinced of both answers. At first, I thought the beer was spilled on accident because Sheffield came into the stands. THEN, you realize the beer wasn't spilled because of that. You can see the guy have a quick flick of the wrist and the beer hits Sheffield right in the back - definitely looks intentional. BUT THEN, you see it again. The guy was drinking the beer a second before, and the flick is a jerking motion, as if he was shoved. A second later, he turns around with his mouth open, as if to say "Hey! That was 8 bucks!" Either way, the fan was pretty heads up for this reason (not to be confused with the swinging fan that talked shit, not that guy): after the beer hit Sheffield, he was ready to get clocked. So if you watch close enough, the guy starts moving away from Sheffield and eventually LAYS DOWN in the row.

Other noticeable fans:
* Guy in the black fleece that shoves his camera in the whole thing to take a picture of Sheffield.
* Guy in the red hoody that flicks Sheffield off from a couple feet away. I wonder if that guy would do the same thing on the street ...

This is exactly what baseball needed to recover from the steroid controversy. Props to everyone involved.

Oh yeah, and A-Rod saved a kid's life before the game. That was good for baseball too.