It is amazing how many quirky in-game promotions sports franchise run these days, often at the bidding of a large corporate sponsor. I've always been particularly interested in those that give us fans some burn, whether it is a t-shirt launch leading to a small scrum for the right to own a cavernous XXXL t-shirt that would serve as Grady Jackson's pajamas or a moment on the jumbotron making a fool of ourselves.
While light-hearted in nature, many of of these in-game promotions pose some inherent dangers to certain fans in attendance. The over-zealous fan (pictured above) reaching aggressively for a t-shirt who accidently falls over the upper deck railing without Reggie Jackson to break his fall on the ground (long-awaited, well-placed Naked Gun joke). The married man casually attending a ballgame with his attractive mistress who gets caught on Kiss Cam. Or how about this scenario: It's bat day in Philadelphia and the drunken Phillies fan next to you just realized you are related to JD Drew.
Eventually one of these gags was bound to go wrong and it was revealed this week that in 2006 it did indeed. A lawsuit filed against the St. Louis Cardinals by the mother of a 17 year-old Illinois girl (identified in court papers as "A.B.") alleges the team failed to properly screen the text messages being posted on the ballpark's message board as part of a phone company promotion. The incident occured during a school field trip to the big Cardinals-Royals game (the midwest's answer to the heated Orioles-Nationals in-state, interleague rivalry back east that eats up all the headlines each summer) and the text was apparently sent by one of the girl's classmates. The result was the posting of a message on the big screen at Busch Stadium reading "A.B. has an STD. Eww."
The girl is suing the Cardinals for 25k in damages and while (according to court papers) she does not have an STD, her story has hit home with athletes ranging from Michael Vick to Michael Vick.
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