Susan Slusser covers the Giants for the San Francisco Chronicle, and late Saturday evening she tweeted a fairly harrowing story that fortunately didn’t have a horrible ending.
Leaving Oracle Park after the Giants lost 6-1 to the Dodgers, Slusser says she was accosted by a drunk man in the parking lot. Slusser wasn’t alone, though, with a group of Los Angeles fans protecting her and escorting her to her car.
Pretty big fan of Dodgers fans right now. Very drunk and big man accosted me walking to the parking lot, very threatening, and a group of LA fans surrounded me and walked me to my car and kept him away. Thanks to all of you. That was freaking scary.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) September 5, 2021
It’s tempting to sensationalize this kind of story, but if you talk to women about their daily life experience, these sort of encounters are all too common. Just this weekend we’ve already gotten examples of how difficult it is to be a woman in sports media, specifically, in terms of men feeling comfortable invading their space. Thankfully for Slusser, she not only had people around but they were willing to help and aware of the situation.
Slusser followed up today, noting that the Giants were following up on the incident, and that she wasn’t trying to make any kind of statement about either fanbase.
There seems to be some thought this had something to do with the rivalry/fanbases. I never indicated that nor do I have any thoughts that that was the case. This was a big and impaired threatening me. He was not a recognizable part of either fan base from what I can tell.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) September 5, 2021
It’s hard to imagine that story ending better aside from an arrest, or of course it not happening at all. But kudos to people doing the right thing, and thankfully this was the story Slusser is tweeting out and not something worse.