goddfather40

Well, after watching my Angels take care of business over Seattle tonight 5-1 (and hold Ichiro to an 0-4 ), I anxiously awaited the highlights of the Texas / Oakland battle on Baseball Tonight. Instead, with the game tied in the 9th, they showed the highlight, well really lowlight, of a huge melee in the Texas bullpen between members of the Rangers and some of the 40 Oakland fans or so who decided to show up. It was reminiscent of the Dodgers brawl with fans in the the bullpen at Wrigley a couple years ago. But that's where it gets REAL bad, a Rangers pitcher, Frank Francisco, throws a frickin chair into the stands, nailing a seemingly innocent lady in the head. Wow, talk about stupid. I know fans can be brutal, but come one, this isn't the WWE. Doug Brocail seemed to be the focus of the melee. He wasn't ejected though. Dude comes in the bottom of the 9th to send the game into extra innings by retiring the A's. Hopefully the Rangers can finish off the A's and move the Angels within 1.

More importantly I hope the lady is OK and presses charges against Francisco. MLB should suspend the guy for the rest of the season. What an idiot.

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Hanxter

he was arrested and charged with aggravated assault - the moron...

he should be banned from baseball for the rest of this season and all of next...

i'm reminded of when vince coleman threw a firecracker into a crowd of fans injuring a 4 year old girl - another moron...

dylanmarsh

This incident is pretty ridiculous. I agree he should be suspended for the rest of the season and possibly next year. I also think he should serve some jail time. If a fan threw a chair at a player, hit the player and broke his nose, the fan would be sitting in a jail for a few months. There needs to be some equality here, but somehow I think Francisco will get probation and pay the woman 6 figures.

radioguy

I don't totally agree with all of ya'll about his suspension and possible jail time. He was stupid to throw the chair into the stands and he shouldn't have done that. You would think that an athlete could control himself enough to not confront a ravenous fan shouting insults and possibly doing other things. But the man is human....we shouldn't hold athletes up to higher standards than we hold ourselves. A person can only take so much.

I agree with a suspension for the rest of the year, but I don't think it should be all of next year as well. You're right, the woman will probably get alot of money out of this only because HE HAS ALOT OF MONEY! If a normal person threw a chair at another person and broke their nose, I would doubt if 6 figures would change hands. I feel sorry for the woman, but I also hate how our society is so damn sue happy.

Stupid Act = Definite Suspension

Jail time? I don't think so.

cj2112

if i attacked a person w/ a chair, I would fully expect to do jail time....so should he. If I were at work and attacked somebody with a chair, I would expect to lose my job, and do jail time, so should he. I would also exoect to be sued by that person so should he.
We shouldn't hold athletes to LOWER standards than we hold ourselves.

BigDonkey2

You'd think that they hear enough shit talking that they'd be used to it by now. On the other hand I was watching Sportscenter yesterday afternoon with some guy who asked John Kruk a question about when it goes to far. He made a good point in saying that it crosses the line when somebody talks about your dying mother. I dont remember if he said it happened to him or somebody else, but shit, if somebody was talking about my dying mother I'd want to beat his ass. But then again there's the issue of a lawsuit if you even touch a fan. So it kind of depends on what the guy was talking about but most likely he was just annoying Frank Francisco. But throwing a chair into the stands and breaking somebody's nose is uncalled for. I don't agree with what he did, but I dont think he should be suspended for the rest of the season. I think he should have to pay for all medical bill for the person and also pay a fine. Jail time I dont know about. I would hate to see him do a couple years for something that insignificant. Yes it was a bad idea to throw the chair but I think he should just be fined and suspended for a few games and pay the medical bills.

cj2112

Insignificant? this guy used a weapon to commit an assault! In most states that is a felony. I'm sure it wasn't insignificant to the person who's nose nose he broke. The guy deserves to be thrown off of the team (fired) and be prosecuted for felony assault. The law is pretty clear in it's definition of assault and the penalties for such actions. Why should this guy be allowed to violate the law w/o being punished just like anybody else?

Blackthorn

Not only is jail time justified it is regretably unlikely that it will happen.

I do think the woman who's nose was broken (and very blodied by this incident) will win a substantial civil judgement against the perp.

Let's see what diamond BuG Selid does with this one.....

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Shizukana

I'm pretty sure that the comments that were made weren't insignificant either, if they mandated a brawl, a 19 minute suspension of the game, and the Oakland PA announcer telling the crowd multiple times that if they continue, the umpires would have the right to forfeit the game in favor of the Rangers.

Where I come from, if you provoke someone, you're asking to get into a fight. The chair WAS excessive, granted.. but I can't just walk down the street yelling random obscenities and heckling people and expect NOT to get punched in the face by someone... these fans shouldn't have either.

As I said, the chair throwing, to me, is what made it excessive. He should not have done that, and yes, he should be fined and suspended for it. For an entire season? Two seasons? Not quite. Jail time? Sure, but I doubt he'd serve very long for an instance such as this - he'd probably get a month or two and then probation... it's not like he's this huge threat to society, or a repeat offender or anything, so he'll most likely get a minimum sentence and lots of probation time.

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radioguy

The lady said today that she was going to wait and see what the league does and then decide if she will file a civil suit against him. Ya right, she will definitely sue him. People nowadays are so damn sue happy that any chance they have to make a buck, they will. She said that her husband was involved in the heckling, but that Francisco shouldn't have thrown the chair. Well, maybe her husband shouldn't have been heckling Francisco. Why don't people accept responsibility for contributing to a situation that escalated? She, nor her husband, ever said that they did anything wrong. She or he, I can't remember, said that heckling is a part of the game and why they bought season tickets. They are taking NO RESPONSIBILITY in this.

Her and her husband remind me of people that can dish it out, but can't take it. I know that they didn't physically throw anything at the pitcher, but they did dish out some pretty nasty verbage. Take responsibility for causing something to happen!

Newton's Law = every action will have a reaction.