Fan who struck Stanton isn’t even a Sox fan
The punk responsible for nailing Giancarlo Stanton with a home run ball isn’t even a Red Sox fan.
A video of Atlanta native Andrew Lastrapes went viral Saturday after he managed to strike Stanton — thanks to a lucky bounce — with a ball from the top of the Green Monster during the Yanks 8-5 victory.
Stanton played it off, even tipping his cap to the Red Sox crowd as he rounded the bases. He then had some fun with the incident through Instagram, posting a clip of the throw mashed together with clips from the 1993 hit movie, “Rookie of the Year.”
“When the ball hit him, I was just like, ‘Oh, this might be a big deal,’” Lastrapes told ESPN.
The 32year-old Braves fan crossed off an item most baseball fans’ bucket list by attending a game at Fenway.
“Literally the last thing that we were talking about on that pitch was if a Yankee hits a homer — we had several conversations about it — but if a Yankee hits a homer, we have to throw it back,” Lastrapes said.
Lastrapes then turned to his friend and headed out of the ballpark fearing the consequences. Lastrapes managed to get away from all but one member of security.
“He was like, ‘Son, did you hit Giancarlo Stanton with that ball?’
That must have been an awkward exchange, as Lastrapes admitted being behind it all. He filled out some paper work documenting the incident, but wasn’t kicked out of Fenway.
“I’m a huge baseball fan, and I was not aware of that, embarrassingly to say,” Lastrapes said of the history his baseball helped set. “Even if I knew it, I don’t think that would’ve crossed my mind. I’ve always been like, ‘I’m at a ballpark, if a visitor hits a home run, I’m going to throw it back.’”
The home run, of course, was the Yankees MLBrecord 266th dinger, two more than the bar set by the ’97 Mariners. Gleyber Torres broke the record earlier in the game.