Pirates fan savagely fires Cardinals home run ball into Allegheny River
It’s not unusual for hometown fans to reject opposing team home runs by immediately throwing them back on the field. For better or worse, that’s become a staple at ballparks throughout the majors and minor leagues. Though sometimes those fans are shrewd enough to quickly switch in a baseball from home in order to keep the souvenir and wise enough to consider where it’s being thrown.
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Those weren’t concerns for one Pirates fan at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Friday night. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with a two-run homer hit by St. Louis Cardinals slugger Jedd Gyorko, so he did the only thing that made sense to him.
No, that didn’t involve firing the ball back into the field of play. Instead, he immediately turned and savagely launched it into the Allegheny River.
Check it out again. No hesitation.
"BOOM ! GYORKO 2 RUN HOMER ! CARDS TAKE AN EARLY 2 RUN LEAD ! GO CARDINALS !" – @carebearcards #stlcards pic.twitter.com/3HtkFWSzqx
— cardinalsgifs (@cardinalsgifs) July 14, 2017
The Allegheny River borders PNC Park, so it’s not like he had to throw it a mile. But it still takes an impressive throw to get it there.
On the other end of the spectrum, it’s not exactly impressive behavior. There are always people walking the concourse and hanging around where the river and PNC Park come together. None of them were probably aware a baseball was coming their way, so the toss created some unnecessary danger.
Beyond that, there were some young kids around that would have appreciated the souvenir regardless of whose bat it came from. You can plainly see a couple in Cardinals red behind him. The fan didn’t take a second to consider that. In fact, it seems he had his mind made up coming into the game that should he catch a Cardinals home run, he was launching it.
While we understand baseball traditions often overrule common sense both on the field and in the stands, we certainly encourage fans to consider their surroundings and maybe look for a young fan before risking blowing out their rotator cuff or hurting someone else to impress their buddies.
BLS H/N: Deadspin
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
