What on earth makkes a "former youth minister", or anyone, do something like this?

[Poohbear123]

All Sports fans are nuts, this is why I am NOT one.

 

[Chicago526]

I heard someone call into a radio show this morning with a simular tale. Her (I think 6 year old) son was standing on his seat, next to his mom and dad. Sammy Sosa (Cubs game) hits a foul ball and it lands in the boy's seat. 10 grown men proceed to jump on the ball, tackleing the poor kid. The dad still has his hand on the ball when another man takes his finger nails and digs/scratches the father until he drops the ball. The jerk then takes out his cell phone and calls all of his friends, braging how he caught a Sosa foul ball. The kid is crying, the dad is bleding, security is everywhere, and the guy just yaps on his cell the rest of the game.

WHAT A JERK!!!! Too bad it didn't get caught on t.v. like this did!

 

[Hercules10]

IMHO the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. The 4 y/o didn't even care about the ball. He was busy watching something else.

Yeah the guy was arrogant and inconsiderate. But not to the extent they're (the media) trying to portray him as.

 

[gometros]

Originally posted by Hercules10
IMHO the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. The 4 y/o didn't even care about the ball. He was busy watching something else.

Yeah the guy was arrogant and inconsiderate. But not to the extent they're (the media) trying to portray him as.

You think a 4-year old boy understand s enough to care or not care? At that age, all he cares about is the food vendors. But, that's not the point. The other guy was old enough to understand and for that he was justly chastised.

 

[Eeyore1954]

Originally posted by Hercules10
IMHO the whole thing has been blown out of proportion. The 4 y/o didn't even care about the ball. He was busy watching something else.

Yeah the guy was arrogant and inconsiderate. But not to the extent they're (the media) trying to portray him as.

I don't agree that the media is blowing this out of proportion. All most newscasts did was show the clip and make a brief comment. It was the people who watched it that became incensed, began calling TV stations, radio talk shows, and speaking out.

No one has portrayed Mr. Starr as anything other than what he portrayed himself to be. If anyone is to blame, it is him.

 

[rhanditresmom]

This has been the talk of the town lately! I think he could have made it a little better if he had just shown a little concern at the time. If he had just apologized to the mom and asked the little boy if he was ok it might not have looked so bad.

Baseball games are crazy, but I love them....

 

[Kirby]

They've been showing the footage of this over and over and over and it clearly shows that he did not shove the boy out of his way to get the ball. The boy was a couple seats down from his parents and not paying any attention to the foul ball. The man, while I believe was wrong for doing what he did, did not shove the boy out of the way to reach the ball. When he leaped over the seats, his legs pushed the boy into the seats in front of him. And, while getting up, pushed the boy again.

I personally think that anyone is stupid to leap over seats that way just to get a foul ball. Those things (the ball) hurt when they hit. I'm sure part of the reason the mom was mad was because she wanted the foul ball for her son and it was basically stolen right out from underneath her.

I'm glad that the boy wasn't hurt. He could have had real damage done to his face had he hit the seats in front of him just right.

I'm ready for this story to get on its way.

 

[Hercules10]

Originally posted by Eeyore1954
I don't agree that the media is blowing this out of proportion.

I never said the 'media' blew it out of proportion. Just the entire thing has been blown out of proportion. The 4 y/o didn't care about the ball. And even though he was shoved, he was not hurt.

It's been blown out of proprtion because he's had to go into hiding because of a bad judgement call. If everyone that's pulled a petty stupid stunt had to go into hiding then I'd wager that half this country would be missing.

People should just let it go.

 

[Eeyore1954]

A bad judgment call? More like rude, obnoxious behavior. If Mr. Starr had to go into hiding, it's his own fault for thinking more of himself and his own desires than anyone else around him. He was so intent on accomplishing a single goal, he was blind to everything else going on at the time. That's not bad judgment... that's just pure and simple selfishness.

I agree it's time to let it go. His 15 mins. of fame are over and he blew them big time.

 

[TheOtherVillainess]

I don't have time right now to read the entire thread but I think I agree with almost everybody else here. What the HECK was this guy thinking? I mean c'mon. It's only a BALL for chrissakes! A BALL!

It's people like him that give Texans a bad name.

TOV

 

[gometros]

Originally posted by Kirby
They've been showing the footage of this over and over and over and it clearly shows that he did not shove the boy out of his way to get the ball. The boy was a couple seats down from his parents and not paying any attention to the foul ball. The man, while I believe was wrong for doing what he did, did not shove the boy out of the way to reach the ball. When he leaped over the seats, his legs pushed the boy into the seats in front of him. And, while getting up, pushed the boy again.

Talk about playing with semantics and taking things too literally. So the guy did not use his two hands to push the kid out of the way. He ust practically body checked him out of the way. Take a look at the picture below. His left leg is practically wrapped around the kids shoulders. How anybody can keep condoning what this guy did and making ecuses for him is beyond me.

 

[beattyfamily]

Originally posted by gometros
How anybody can keep condoning what this guy did and making ecuses for him is beyond me.

ITA!!

He pushed the boy going down for the ball and going back up. The boy looked pretty scared to me and seemed to be hurt on his arm. He was rubbing his arm. The boy was pinned to the chair at one point. Give me a break!

 

[Kirby]

It's a matter of he said, she said. I hold to my belief that he did not intentionally knock the boy out of the way. This is a much different camera angle and, yes, it looks like he fell all over the boy. But from other angles, you can clearly see that he didn't.

Granted, jumping over the seats and throwing himself down to the ground to get the ball was not the right thing to do. In doing so, he ran into a little boy twice. If there were no little boy involved, no one would be saying a thing. I do not think that he would have intentionally hurt the boy and probably wasn't even thinking about anything but the foul ball. He made a bad judgment call and would probably do things different now if he could.

As far as making excuses and justifying the man's actions, I wasn't. But if you want to think that, go ahead. No skin off my nose.

 

[disykat]

Originally posted by Kirby
It's a matter of he said, she said. I hold to my belief that he did not intentionally knock the boy out of the way. This is a much different camera angle and, yes, it looks like he fell all over the boy. But from other angles, you can clearly see that he didn't.

Granted, jumping over the seats and throwing himself down to the ground to get the ball was not the right thing to do. In doing so, he ran into a little boy twice. If there were no little boy involved, no one would be saying a thing. I do not think that he would have intentionally hurt the boy and probably wasn't even thinking about anything but the foul ball. He made a bad judgment call and would probably do things different now if he could.

As far as making excuses and justifying the man's actions, I wasn't. But if you want to think that, go ahead. No skin off my nose.

I agree with you. The guy was a jerk who ignored the fact that he knocked over a child. Diving for a ball like that was dangerous and stupid to begin with. THAT was his wrongdoing - not aknowledging it and making appropriate apologies etc. I think there IS a difference between acting like a jerk and being a person who intentionally hurts children.

I accidently bloodied a child's nose once when I was standing talking with my hands and a child walked up at just the same time my hand reached out. I felt horrible, of course, and apologized and made sure he was okay - but I'd hate to think someone could have taken a picture and made it look like I had attacked him.