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The Phillie Phanatic Inadvertently Shot a Wiener Into a Nice Lady’s Face
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One of the most endearing traits of the national pastime is that every time you go to a ballgame, you might see something you’ve never seen before. Fans who attended Monday night’s Phillies/Cardinals game at Citizens Bank Park saw something they almost certainly had never seen before: The Phillie Phanatic launched a hot dog into a spectator’s eye.
You might be tempted to think I’m making this up. I assure you, I am not:
Coming up at 4:30 and 6 on Action News- hear from this Phillies fan injured by a hot dog fired from the Phanatic’s hot dog cannon. The @Phillies say the mascot feels terrible about it. pic.twitter.com/2kXlPAX6V3
— sarahbloomquist (@sarahbloomquist) June 20, 2018
Yeah, but you should see the other guy. Action News’ Sarah Bloomquist had this story covered from all angles and was appropriately insistent that this was not a gag:
Yeh. For real. Incident report documented at the ballpark. She went to the ER. The Phillies, on the record, told me they feel terrible about it. https://t.co/bVyA9V83uB
— sarahbloomquist (@sarahbloomquist) June 21, 2018
Bloomquist’s online report contained the details you’re surely by now looking for. “It just came out of nowhere. And hard,” said the victim, Kathy McVay. “And then the next thing I know he shot it in our direction, and bam! It hit me like a ton of bricks. My glasses flew,” she added.
As you can tell from the picture above, this was not a glancing blow. “I have a small hematoma in my eye. And mostly, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. It’s going to go down the side of my face,” Ms. McVay noted.
The Phillies are probably fortunate that the Phanatic didn’t cause more damage than he did with this shot. Baseball tickets have long contained expansive, small-print disclaimers on the back of the stub. You know, the part that nobody actually reads. That language generally absolves the team from injuries caused by either batted balls, bats or fragments of bats that end up in the seats. Ms. McVay’s potential right to recover against the Phillies almost certainly would be governed by whatever the limiting language on her ticket said, i.e., whether wayward hot dogs were among the covered objects in the disclaimer.
For her part, at least right now, she doesn’t seem interested in a lawsuit. “McVay is a big Phillies fan and doesn’t plan any legal action. However, she does have a message for fellow fans in the stands. ‘Just to be aware, because you never know. I understand a baseball, but not a hot dog,’ she said with a quiet laugh.”
I couldn’t help but point out the obvious:
She is. She was worried about that. Not a 🌭. https://t.co/jKqdf92lbu
— sarahbloomquist (@sarahbloomquist) June 21, 2018
Keep your heads on a swivel at the yard, folks.
Formerly a Featured Columnist on the Philadelphia Phillies and Manchester City Football Club for Bleacher Report. Full-time attorney, part-time pundit. Follow me @philkeidel on Twitter.