The 2024 World Series will forever be remembered for an idiotic incident involving a New York Yankees fan. During Game 4 of the series, Austin Capobianco, a Yankees fan seated in the front row of the right field foul territory stand, interfered with Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts’ attempt to make a catch. This act, which garnered significant media attention, has had a lasting impact on Capobianco’s life.
The incident has cast a long shadow over Capobianco, drawing widespread condemnation and becoming a defining moment in his life.
“All the stuff my family has had to deal with because of me,” Capobianco said. “The nonstop phone calls. The people sending me pictures of their ugly-looking penises. The packages.”
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This attention has seemingly caught the 38-year-old, fully grown adult off guard, as though he thinks actions should not come with consequences. Is sending lewd pictures of one’s genitalia to a non-consenting person a bridge too far? Certainly. But, in the words of every schoolyard kid since the beginning of time, “You started it.”
Capobianco is acting as if he didn’t have agency at that moment. As if this is just something that happened to him. He only now acknowledged that he did a dumb thing, but he caveats that with the fact that it was caught on camera. That perhaps, if he had done this at, say, a little league game his actions would have been permissible.
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“I’m a good dude who did a dumb thing on camera,” he admitted.
This contrition seems to be inspired by the attention he brought upon himself. He could have done what baseball fans have done for well over a century. He could have acted with some modicum of decorum, and shown respect for the game he apparently loves and for the athletes who have devoted their lives to playing this beautiful sport. But he didn’t he made a calculated decision to make a fool of himself.
This contrition is also new. In an interview shortly after the incident, Capobianco bragged about his stupidity.
“We talked about it. If we’re on the field, we’re D-ing up our fans from being stupid and causing interference that [costs the Yankees an out when they’re in the field],” Capobianco said on the “Barstool Rundown.”
“In that situation, ideally we would’ve hit the ball while it was in the air — we’re not reaching into the field of play. We would have if it came down to that, but that ball was on the wall. It was in my mouth, basically, and I go, ‘I can’t not do something right now.’”
“It was pretty secure. Once you put your hand on the glove you’re getting booted no matter what. So I might as well just f–king rip the thing out,” Capobianco said.
“The best was when [my friend] just grabbed the arm. It was f–king hilarious in the video.”
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These quotes have aged terribly, especially in light of what Capobianco is now asking from his adoring public.
“I’m a hero in Yankees land. I’m a villain in America,” he said. “I don’t really care. I just want to be forgotten about. That’s it. I want people to forget about me.”
Many of the metaphors used in this article compare him and his ilk to children because his act was that of immaturity. Here is one more for Mr. Capobianco. It is a lesson most of us learned in kindergarten; Keep your hands to yourself, next time, and things like this won’t happen.