Christina’s Common Sense

You will likely have to read this post, and the Boston Herald article, at least twice before you believe what you see. I know I did.

Even if you’re not a big baseball fan, you’d have to live under a rock to not have some knowledge of the near-century-long rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Normally it’s all in good fun—until about the 7th Inning Stretch, at which time a fair amount of liquid courage has been ingested by fans on both sides.

That’s pretty much what happened a couple of years ago, when a Yankees fan and a Red Sox fan met in a sports bar in California. When Mr. New York cheered for the Yankees over the Cleveland, Mr. Boston, who was cheering for the Sox over Tampa Bay, uttered some unkind words in his rival’s direction.

As noted in an earlier paragraph, the Yankees/Sox fun and games vanishes darn quickly after a couple of beers. As such, the altercation became physical and resulted in Mr. Yankees punching Mr. Red Sox in the mouth. Such is not terribly unusual between Yankees fans and Sox fans. But it is unusual to sue the assaulted for damage done to your hand by his tooth.

This lawsuit has just been settled, costing the Red Sox fan $25000. The Yankees fan won because, as a musician, he depends on his hands to make a living and having his opponent’s tooth lodged in his knuckle was a major inconvenience. Therefore, some idiot judge decided to slap the Red Sox fan with $25000.

This was a silly case, and the judge who agreed to hear it should be disbarred and not allowed to practice law ever again. So should whichever lawyer agreed to take this case. If this Yankees-fan-turned-musician wants to protect his hands, maybe he should consider not decking people over baseball games. But he won’t, because the legal system has taught him that he can run to a lawyer and sue the person he assaulted over the damages.

I could also use this to make disparaging comments about Yankees fans. But I won’t.