Reds outfielder Jake Fraley explains viral confrontation with fan who 'crossed a line'

WASHINGTON — The nine-second video was viewed more than one million times on Twitter, and Cincinnati Reds left fielder Jake Fraley is glad it caught attention.

Fraley was on the warning track, separated a few feet from a standing fan, and yelling at the fan for talking about his kids with some profanity included. The interaction came at the end of the Reds’ game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday at Citizens Bank Park and Fraley walks away after telling the fan to “shut the (expletive) up.”

The fan interacting with Fraley responded, “it wasn’t me,” and “you’ve got the wrong guy,” then clapped as Fraley walked toward the dugout. The Twitter account of the fan that posted the video wrote afterward that a group of three fans were ejected.

Warning: Some strong language in video

Fraley, in his fourth season in the big leagues, says he expects heckling at all road parks, especially in Philadelphia. He heard it all game to that point and he had no problem with it. What changed is he heard a fan mention his kids and, to him, that crossed a line. His reaction was caught on the nine-second viral video.

“You can say everything you want about me,” Fraley told The Cincinnati Enquirer. “I don’t really care. I’ve heard it all, all the way from college up to the big leagues now. But as soon as you start talking about my kids, you’ve crossed a line. There is a respect line that unfortunately I guess those guys didn’t understand. Right, wrong or indifferent, it was what I decided to do in order to express the emotions I felt were needed in that moment.

“I know it’s going viral and I hope it does. I hope fans can understand that us as professional athletes, we’re people. We’re playing a game that is extremely hard. And if you cross a line talking about somebody’s family, especially somebody’s kids, just because you were sitting in the stands doesn’t mean you can do that. I felt like I needed to say something and that was the decision I made. I stand by it.”

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Fraley declined to share the comment directed toward his kids, but he said it was shouted at him shortly before he walked over to the fan at the end of the inning.

“The normal fan heckling toward me was the majority of the game leading up to that point,” Fraley said. “Then for whatever reason in that moment, that dude decided to start talking about my kids and that’s where I drew the line.”

His wife, Angelica, responded to a tweet from the tabloid website TMZ about the interaction and wrote: “If you know Jake you know he doesn’t lose his cool, but you don’t talk about anyone’s children. Some fans will threaten players children in front of any kids in the stands. Not it.”

It was the first time Fraley heard hecklers say something that crossed the line this season, he said. He immediately approached a security guard who was standing in the outfield corner.

“Security was standing there,” he said. “Obviously, he saw I was upset and he asked what happened. I said there were a few guys up there, I think it was a group of them, and they were talking about my family. I told them they better get him or I’m going to go up there.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Reds OF Jake Fraley explains viral confrontation with Phillies fan