Man who slept off during baseball match sues ESPN

A baseball fan who was caught ‘red handed’ sleeping in the stands by ESPN cameras during a game between the New York Yankees is suing the network.

The New York Post reported that Andrew Rector had filed a US$10 million (around RM31 million) defamation suit against the sports television network.

He claimed that he was defamed by sport commentators, Dan Shulman and John Kruk.

“It’s not the place you come to sleep,” one of the announcers said when Rector’s action was played on television.

Rector, a used car salesman, admitted that he had briefly slept during the game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees on April 13.

In his suit, the man claimed that the two commentators had verbally attacked him nonstop without any reasonable reason.

He also claimed that the commentators had also insulted him with several statements which crossed the line between reporting on sport and abuse.

Rector added that he “suffered substantial injury” to his “character and reputation” as well as “mental anguish, loss of future income and loss of earning capacity.”

He named the major league baseball (MLB) as the second defendant. MLB had uploaded the recording on YouTube titled “Fan sleeps in stands during game vs. Red Sox”.

The New York Post reported that ESPN and the Yankees had refused to comment on the incident. The MLB representative also did not provide any feedback.