Red Sox fan steals (HR)baseball out of a woman's hands, throws it onto the field, gets tossed

[JonLP24]

Josh Gold-Smith (give him a Twitter follow @GoldAndOrSmith) provides us with this incredible gem of a GIF showing a man wearing a visor, presumably a Red Sox fan, stealing a baseball out of a woman's hand and throwing it back onto the field. Just like what every gentleman should do in that situation.

This happened after Detroit Tigers' Alex Avila hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning of game 2 in the ALCS. Daigo Fujiwara reports on Twitter that the man was rescued from the woman's wrath by Fenway's finest:

http://www.bluebirdbanter.com/2013/10/13/4835800/red-sox-fan-steals-baseball-out-of-a-womans-hands-throws-it-onto-the

[Auggie]

1. Douchebag and racist: read the update:

After the above incident, Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan went to that section of the stands to check out the scene and heard from the other fans that the visor-wearing fan was allegedly making racist speech targeted at African-American Tigers fans. Several fans in that section told Passan that the man had told a Tigers fan to "go back to the ghetto," and as he was being led out by stadium security, another black Tigers fan sarcastically bade farewell, and the man said "bye, Travon."

[Berlum]

4. Republicon 'Family Values' infest the sports world

[KamaAina]

2. Throw it back! Throw it back!

said every Cubs fan, ever.

[JonLP24]

5. I started looking at the history of that because of this post

I came across something caused me to laugh

Some other attempts to curb this behavior have focused on the memorabilia value angle. One interesting take wrote about the guy who threw back the first home run ball Stephen Strasburg ever allowed. It implied an estimated $1,000 value that he gave away. His reasoning for doing so: he wanted to let Strasburg know that he had his back. Seriously, that's what he said. That's a major miscalculation on cause and effect in his conceptual thought process, but it exemplifies more of what's really at the heart of the matter here. Somehow this act has become symbolic of something that depicts what a real fan should be. The whole got-his-back thing is just some stupid machismo angle, but in the end it's being driven by the search for authenticity. It's not just peer pressure of the fans around you that didn't catch that baseball. Peer pressure only works when the individual wants to be a member of the larger group. The drive is the desire to be an authentic fan.

http://www.pinstripedbible.com/2013/9/13/4723520/yankees-fans-home-run-balls-cubs-red-sox

[Auggie]

6. Very interesting ...

especially considering just about every baseball fan knows it leads to automatic ejection. Is that the ultimate in showing your authenticity now? Stupidity? Both?

Mmm ... I'm getting why people vote against their best interests here.

[joeybee12]

3. Seems to me the woman knows him and she's yelling his name...

In an effort to get him to not throw it back...what a d-bag.