Yankees fans who tried to rip Mookie Betts' glove off reveal unhinged plan
As soon as two stereotypical Yankees fans attempted to pry Mookie Betts' glove off his hand and pop a foul ball out of it, most folks' first thought was, "Wow. There are two idiots."
The second thought? "Congrats, bozos, you just cost yourself a very expensive World Series ticket, as well as a hefty dose of karma."
Well, luckily, the Betts Bros were here to inform you, post-ejection, that they were actually grandfathered into the seats as season ticket holders. That appears to still be the case on Wednesday morning; despite calls for their eternal removal, both Austin Capobianco (glove grabber) and his friend John Peter (loose hand grabber) believe they'll be welcomed back for Game 5 after being tossed out of Game 4 (the Yankees refused comment here).
As it turns out, this wasn't just a random act of interference, though. Capobianco had long been planning on doing exactly what he did to Betts if a glove ever ended up crossing his personal line.
As he told ESPN after the game (at a bar, duh), “We always joke about the ball in our area. We’re not going to go out of our way to attack. If it’s in our area, we’re going to ‘D’ up."
Yankees fans who tried to tear Mookie Betts' glove off had always planned to do this
Agree to disagree, but I would say forcibly grabbing the glove represents "going out of your way." Fans have no responsibility to give Betts an open path to the baseball, but there's certainly an unspoken agreement that removing equipment from a player's body and trying to snatch a live ball is out of bounds.
The fans could've certainly hurt Betts' wrist (though they didn't), and it was certainly odd to see their glorification in the aftermath by mainstream media.
By Yankee fans? Not shocking at all. Down 3-0, you're looking for anything to cling to, and these two set a tone of lunacy. But ESPN chilling with Capobianco at a bar? Imagine if they'd done it to Shohei Ohtani?
Dodgers players, after the game, were understandably upset. Tommy Edman called the play "unacceptable." Betts himself tried to downplay things and focused on the loss, but in the moment, as Capobianco's brother Darren said, "Mookie was swearing at us. Not good."
In Game 5, we'll learn whether the boys are in the building, as well as whether or not this is about to be a Moises Alou moment or a depressingly dated meme. Just don't ... don't put the Rizzler in these seats or something. All we ask.