“My fiance Shannon and I were honestly unaware of the situation of the little boy sitting next to us last night since we were so caught up in the excited and moment of being at our first Ranger‘s baseball game together,” Sean Leonard wrote in a statement posted by WFAA.
The child eventually was given another ball, but that didn’t stem the wave of online criticisms that came after Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay said on air, “Oh, my God, they can’t give it to the kid?”
Leonard was at the game with his fiance, Shannon Moore, whom he will wed on Saturday.
“It’s very hurtful, especially when you know you wouldn’t intentionally hurt somebody or hurt their feelings,” Moore said. “Especially when it’s a little-bitty toddler.”
As for Kay, Leonard said, “He took an event and sensationalized it, threw it out there, never checked or validated the facts.”
As for the toddlers parents, they said that after the hoopla had died down (and the couple had posed & preened with the baseball in front of the little tike for a decent chunk of time) Leonard & Moore offered the ball to the boy but they declined, choosing to use the moment as a teachable moment for their three year old.
To the parents I say kudos, take a bad situation and make the best of it, possibly teaching the little guy something in the process.
To the engaged couple who suffer from head-up-ass-syndrome (HUAS)…don’t make me laugh.
An apology?
For what?
For correctly pointing out the way you intercepted a ball that was tossed in the toddlers direction?
For correctly pointing out how completely oblivious to the toddlers tears you were as you preened & posed with the thing right in front of him, only adding to his emotional duress?
For failing to applaud you after it took you way too long to realize what was going on around you and to offer to do the “right thing”?
I have little doubt that the only reason you ever removed your heads from your collective asses was after one or more of your friends called/texted you to let you know what Grade A douchebags you looked like.
For me, nothing changed with any of the news I read today.
The issue wasn’t that they merely took the ball in the first place, it was as much about how clue-free & self-absorbed they were in the process.
A pair of people, so self-centered they couldn’t even realize something they had done launched a three year old into tears were very correctly identified as people of questionable character.
The fact that the toddlers parents tried to make the best of a bad situation does nothing to change my opinion of the couple & what transpired.
The vast majority of us, in that same situation would have a. noticed what transpired and b. handed the ball over to the child and enjoyed what would have been a wonderful reaction..a big, broad smile on the kid’s face, no doubt.
We can forgive a 3 year old for being self-centered, because at that age they all are.
We can’t look past a pair of supposed adults who couldn’t be bothered to hand over a cheesy souvenir in order to put a smile on a toddlers face.
I adore how some idiots replying to both my piece and others that have written about the matter seem to think the three year old was a brat who deserved to cry, as if somehow it’d “toughen him up” or teach him a life lesson ignore the most obvious thing.
