Sunday’s matchup between the Texas Rangers and the Tampa Bay Rays wasn’t all that intriguing for much of the game, with the Rangers coming away with a 13-2 victory. However, some controversy arose during the top of the seventh inning when a Rangers fan interfered with a catchable foul ball, and immediately regretted his decision to do so.
Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena hit a fly ball near the right field seats that looked like it would be just far enough in play for Rangers right fielder Travis Jankowski to make a play.
But as Jankowski neared the ball, it was instead caught by a Rangers fan in the stands who was at first quite proud to make the catch. However, Jankowski immediately protested that he would have made the play. The Rangers broadcast team, consisting of play-by-play man Dave Raymond and color analyst Mike Bacsik were also immediately frustrated at the fan’s crucial error on the call of the play in question.
“Arozarena battling… Here is the 2-2,” said Raymond. “Flipped it out to right field. Jankowski, the long run at the wall… And he just missed getting that ball as the fan makes a play.”
“Bro…Bro… ly It looked like Travis was going to catch that ball,” said Bacsik.
Immediately after catching the ball, the fan did indeed seemingly realize that he made a big mistake. He appeared to utter the words “Oh s***” to himself as soon as Jankowski looked up at him in frustration.
We just had a fan interference on a foul pop-up.
Travis Jankowski looked up very annoyed at the fan. Looked like the fan said "oh shit!" on the broadcast once he realized what he had done.
Umpires meet, Randy Arozarena called out. Kevin Cash was not happy. pic.twitter.com/r9PhRlzooB
— kennedi landry (@kennlandry) July 7, 2024
As Rangers beat writer Kennedi Landry illuded to in her post on X of the incident, it would ultimately be determined that this was indeed fan interference, which resulted in Arozarena being called out on the play.
For the Rangers, the play didn’t end up being all that consequential. But for this fan in particular, he may have a hard time living this mistake down…
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.