You have to respect the pettiness of this fan refusing to accept a souvenir from his rival
When you're visiting a team's ballpark as a fan of the opponent, it's a good plan to tread carefully. You wouldn't be too happy if there was an overly boisterous fan causing a ruckus in your own stadium. Just respect the territory and everything should go fine.
That being said, not everything has to be happy-go-lucky. Remember: rivalries are fun! Beef is good! There's nothing wrong with some good-natured ribbing.
Take this young White Sox fan who watched his team fall to the Orioles on Tuesday at Camden Yards. He had a chance to snag a foul ball collected by O's third-base coach José David Flores. The toss seemed to be heading in the White Sox fan's direction ...
... only to be snagged by an Orioles fan ahead of him. At that point, the ball was dead to him. It was tainted, and he wanted nothing to do with it.
This kid wanted NO part of this foul ball. pic.twitter.com/WjFkA1NMyD
— Cut4 (@Cut4) April 24, 2019
It's possible that this kid's dad passed down some long-standing beef against the Orioles dating back to when they took down the White Sox in the 1983 ALCS, but that seems like a long shot. This just seems like standard pettiness against fans of your current opponent.
We're here for it! Now, that slightly older O's fan knows the whole deal. And hey, the White Sox kid accepted the gift in the end anyway. After all, a souvenir is a souvenir.
Andrew Mearns is a writer for Cut4 whose baseball obsession was born from the shattered dreams of Mike Mussina's perfect game attempt in 2001. He has a startling memory of World Series highlights that barely functions as a party trick.
