They seem like a nice couple that is overwhelmed by their sudden and ultimately undeserved infamy. As we mentioned on the air, the best and most defensible scenario for the couple would be that they were completely unaware of the crying boy situation. That’s exactly what they say. And I believe them.
We should probably afford them the benefit of the doubt. And we should all rejoice that the public outrage internet monster passed over us and selected Sean and Shannon for consumption this time. But your time is coming. Your time is coming.
he two Texas Rangers fans who wouldn’t give up a foul ball to a crying kid at a game in Arlington on Wednesday (Arpil 25th) are upset about being labeled the “worst people ever.”
Their names are Sean Leonard and Shannon Moore, and they’re actually getting married this weekend. They have seven kids between them, so they’re not anti-children or anything.
But they claim they didn’t give up the ball because they just didn’t realize the kid wanted it, which is hard to believe because he was five feet away balling his eyes out.
WFAA interviewed the couple and Shannon said,
“I love children, I would never hurt someone,”
They said it has been difficult being made into villains by the viral video. Shannon went on,
“It’s very hurtful, especially when you know you wouldn’t intentionally hurt somebody or hurt their feelings, especially when it’s a little-bitty toddler.”
Leonard and Moore are also angry at Michael Kay, the broadcaster who called them out for it, and are demanding an apology from him. Leonard said,
“He took an event and sensationalized it, threw it out there, never checked or validated the facts,”
Call me crazy, but i don’t see an apology coming from Michael Kay anytime soon. It doesn’t matter if they intentionally kept the ball from the crying kid or not, either way it was a bone head move. Suffer the consequences and move on.
Baseball devotees are beating up on a couple of Texas Rangers fans who caught a ball in the stands Wednesday night — to the loud displeasure of a nearby toddler. How bad is it? NBC Sports takes the total cheap shot: “Rangers fans continue tradition of taking baseballs from little kids.”
ABC News wasn’t subtle: “Are These Texas Rangers Fans the Worst Sports Fans Ever?” But the folks who got pine-tarred as the villains said Thursday that it’s a bad call: They had no idea the kid was so upset. The couple have been identified in news reports as Sean Leonard, a North Richland Hills resident and employee of the city of Southlake, and his fiancée, Shannon Moore.
In a written statement to WFAA-TV (Channel 8), Leonard said: “My fiancée Shannon and I were honestly unaware of the situation of the little boy sitting next to us last night since we were so caught up in the ... moment of being at our first Rangers baseball game together.” So whose error was it? The Rangers were at home, whacking the New York Yankees 7-3 in the eighth inning. First baseman Mitch Moreland tossed a ball into the stands.
The Yankees’ YES television network followed the action. The ball landed at the feet of a man wearing a Rangers T-shirt who reached down and grabbed it, holding it up as a trophy for the woman sitting on his right. But just to his left sat a man with a small boy wearing a Rangers baseball cap. The child saw the ball, reached for it, and burst into furious tears.
The Yankees announcer initially went Dr. Phil on the child: “Oh my goodness, he’s going to realize this is just a blip on the radar screen of life. There’s going to be much worse to come, kids.” But then, as the man and woman fussed over the ball with smartphone photos while the boy wailed, the announcer’s tone changed: “Oh my God, they can’t give it to the kid? That’s awful,” he said. “Wow they’re actually rubbing it in the kid’s face. That’s cold.”
Moments later, someone from the Rangers’ dugout tossed another ball up to the boy and the camera showed the man and boy happily comparing their trophies. But that first image of the couple oblivious to the crying child, along with the announcer’s commentary, set the tone that flew around the Internet Thursday. Most comments had no sympathy for the couple.
But a significant minority took their side. After all, the man hadn’t snatched the ball from the boy (as has been caught on camera in many ballparks). Why should he have given in to a toddler’s tears? Rangers TV announcer and former general manager and player Tom Grieve didn’t see what happened Wednesday. But he’s seen plenty of similar incidents over the years. He’s ripped into Rangers fans who grabbed balls away from kids.
This instance sounds harder to call, he said. “You don’t know the circumstances,” he said. “Maybe the guy who caught the ball had a grandson at home and wanted to give him the ball.” But in most circumstances, he’s for adults in the stands looking for kids to give balls to.
But how about the fans who say the boy’s tears should not have been rewarded? Maybe his parents missed out on a potential lesson, said Dr, Paul Glasier, a psychologist at Children’s Medical Center Dallas.
He figures the child looks about 3 years old, an age when children have trouble keeping emotions in check. And it’s an age when parents can be setting boundaries between what a child can have and what a child can’t have.
“Maybe they could have gotten out of that situation and used it as a teaching moment,” he said. On the other hand, there’s not really a downside to the boy getting a ball and a moment he may remember for a long time, he said.
