Napping Baseball Fan Sues For $10 Million, Claims Defamation And ‘Emotional Distress’

Napping baseball fan Andrew Rector has filed a huge lawsuit against the New York Yankees and Major League Baseball. According to Yahoo! News, Rector, 26, fell asleep during the Yankees-Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium on April 13. It didn’t take long for cameras to find Rector and focus in on him so that everyone at home could see the somewhat embarrassing moment. And that is not all. Newscasters poked fun at Rector, making all kinds of comments — many of which weren’t too nice.

The lawsuit alleges the following:

“Announcers like Dan Shulman and John Kruck [sic] unleashed avalanche of disparaging words against the person of and concerning the plaintiff. These words, include but not limited to ‘stupor, fatty, unintelligent, stupid’ knowing and intending the same to be heard and listened to by millions of people all over the world.”

The napping baseball fan — as he is now known as by thousands of people — was also made fun of on the internet once the video and still shots of him snoozing made it online. He apparently feels as though the ridicule that he went through was way over-the-top and completely out of line.

The lawsuit continues:

“The defendant Major league Baseball continually repeated these vituperative utterances against the plaintiff on the major league baseball web site the next day. These words and its insinuations presented the plaintiff as symbol of anything but failure.”

So what is Andrew Rector seeking? Oh, just $10 million. According to NESN, Rector is suing ESPN, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, ESPN New York, the New York Yankees and ESPN announcers Dan Shulman and John Kruk for defamation and “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Despite the lawsuit, MLB.com still has the video uploaded to their YouTube channel — and pictures of the sleeping baseball fan are still circulating on the web.

Chances are the napping baseball fan is not going to be awarded $10 million despite his case. People seem to be having a field day with this story, and it seems as though Rector is doing more harm than good. The comments made by the ESPN announcers weren’t very professional, but do you think a lawsuit of this magnitude is warranted? Sound off in the comments below.

Want to read about another debatable lawsuit? Check out this story by The Inquisitr about a woman who threatened to sue McDonald’s after she spilled her own hot beverage and suffered burns.

[Photo courtesy of MLB.com / YouTube still]