The Pirates Continuing to Play After the Fan Fell from the Stands was Inexcusable
The incident with the fan falling from the stands lies with MLB, as we’ve seen in the past.
Plus: Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson, Georgia Amoore, Chicago Stars FC, and more
“You know that‘s fake, don’t you?”
Anyone who is a professional wrestling fan has heard this at one point in their life. For me, it was in 2017 when I started my job at a PR and advocacy group. We went out for a happy hour shortly after I started, and the one designer creeped on my Instagram and asked me about it.
“Of course,” I said, “but it’s just like going to see a movie in the theaters. Robert Downey Jr. isn’t actually Iron Man, you know?”
I’ve always known that wrestling wasn’t real, per se, but the first time I can remember wrestling truly being real was at the Over the Edge Pay-Per-View in 1999.
That’s the show where tragedy struck, when Owen Hart was set to propel down from the rafters but the harness snapped, and he plummeted to his death.
Despite knowing this. Despite announcing it to the fans throughout the broadcast that this wasn’t part of the show. Despite Hart’s blood being on the mat and the ring being dented from his impact.
WWE decided to move forward with the rest of the show that evening.
It’s a decision that has never and will never make sense to me.
It’s why when something happens like what happened at PNC Park in Pittsburgh Wednesday night happens, I can’t help but to think back to that night in Kansas City when Hart passed away.
On Wednesday night, a fan in right field above the Clemente Wall — a 21-foot structure in the outfield — leapt up and fell over the fence onto the field and onto the warning track.
During the broadcast, the cameras — understandably — focused on the players instead of showing the EMS working on the fan, who has to be stretched off the field and taken to the local hospital.
The players were visibly shaken. From Andrew McCutchen, to Dansby Swanson, to Jameson Taillon — they were all concerned.
So what happened next? The game just resumed. It was the bottom of the 7th, and the game continued on.
I reached out to the Pirates right after the play resumed, asking if there was an update on the fan and if there was any discussion about suspending play due to the accident.
As I expected, the Pirates issued a press release after the game to address to provide a statement.
The Pittsburgh Pirates have just issued a statement on the fan who fell from the Clemente Wall in right field.
— Pitch Mr. Perfect (@michaelwaterloo.bsky.social) April 30, 2025 at 9:33 PM
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I want to be clear here — this is not a Pittsburgh Pirates problem. This is an MLB problem.
This happened in 2011, when a fan in Texas asked outfielder Josh Hamilton for a ball. He reached for it and fell over the railing, landing behind the outfield wall in an existing gap head first.
He died from the injuries.
The game continued.
That incident was nearly a year after a fan fell 30 feet from a high deck in the same stadium to a lower deck — miraculously surviving — during a game.
That game also continued.
What are we doing here? It took a fan dying in 2018 from a foul ball to reignite the conversation about safety netting down the lines at ballparks before MLB implemented it.
The last update that we have about the fan in Pittsburgh is that he was in critical condition. What measures will MLB take to ensure safety — accidents happen, of course — but also ensure that a fucking game isn’t more important than a severe injury to a fan?
I reached out to MLB about their decision making about postponing and suspending games — does it fall to the crew chief like it does for a game suspended due to weather? — but as of publication, I haven’t heard anything back yet.
Just be better. That’s all we ask.
The Real Issue with Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson
Everything that I have learned about Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson has been against my will.
The latest news is that the legendary coach’s girlfriend halted any plans for UNC to be a part of Max’s Hard Knocks, as well as stopped an interview with CBS News while the coach was on a press tour promoting his new book.
The question that stopped the interview was asking how the coach and Hudson initially met.
Why is that a big deal? Well, Belichick is 73. And Hudson is 49.
Oops. Shit. Sorry. Twenty-four years would be a big age gap, but the age gap is actually 49 years.
Hudson is 24. What — and I want to be careful here — the fuck do a 73-year-old and a 24-year-old have in common? It’s disgusting on every single level, and the disparity in age for it being perverted and creepy from Bill’s side and arguably taking advantage of someone in later life on Hudson’s side.
Razzball doesn’t miss on social media, and they summed this up perfectly on Bluesky:
Same age difference as bill belichick and his girlfriend
— Razzball (@razzball.bsky.social) May 1, 2025 at 9:08 AM
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What are some more examples?
The difference between Jordon and Bill is the same difference between a newborn baby and Peyton Manning or Reese Witherspoon. It’s the same age gap as Olivia Rodrigo and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It’s the difference between Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen and Bob Saget — their father on Full House — PLUS an additional 10 years.
What. Are. We. Doing. Here.
“It’s legal.”
Notice that’s the first thing that m*n say when a much older dude is dating someone younger — usually when they are 18 or 19?
Think about that for a second. That age could easily be 16, and they’d still be saying it’s legal, ignoring the fact that it’s a fucking child.
This situation isn’t that, but forget all of the surrounding factors and the regret that UNC has to have with hiring Belichick. The real issue is the disgusting age gap.
Don’t lose sight of that.
Georgia Amoore Goes Down
ACL injuries are absolutely brutal for women athletes. It’s always been more prevalent for women than men, and it’s something that I started researching two years ago.
Juju Watkins, Tierna Davidson, and now Georgia Amoore are just a few of the latest big-name women athletes who have suffered an ACL injury. The Mystics announced that Amoore suffered an ACL injury — not announced as a tear yet, although they said on Thursday that Amoore is expected to miss the 2025 season — Tuesday during practice.
It’s brutal news for a small guard who was set to get big playing time for the young Mystics. Since it happened when she was with the team, the Mystics will have to carry her on their roster. The Storm, for comparison, were able to place both Jordan Horston and Nika Mühl on the suspended list since their ACL injuries happened when they were away from the team.
The Latest Scapegoat for the Chicago Stars
The Chicago Stars FC fired head coach Lorne Donaldson 16 months after he took over the team and six weeks into the NWSL season.
The Stars aren’t good. Everyone knew it heading into the season — and Donaldson would be in that camp if you could get his honest opinion.
But the thing is — Donaldson was set up to fail from the very beginning. Donaldson was brought into Chicago following the sale of the team to Laura Ricketts, the co-owner of MLB’s Chicago Cubs.
The Stars have a long tumultuous history of toxicity and abuse since entering the league, the sale of the team made sense.
But where Ricketts went wrong was hiring Donaldson before there was even a general manager in place. The focus of Donaldson’s on-field play is defense and counter-attacking, but instead of filling out the roster with players who are able to fit that mold for the 2024 season or heading into the 2025 season, the front office rebranded the team with a new name, new crest, and new logo.
A rebrand is fine. Usher in a new era and move past the bad era. But you don’t do that in place of improving the on-field product.
Coming out of a 2024 Olympic season that was up and down for Chicago, the team decided to … not do anything to improve its roster. Hardly anything, I should say.
You’d think for a scheme that relies on defense that the club would look to improve in that area via trades and free agency.
Nope.
What about at midfield for the counter?
Nope.
This would still happen if Mallory Swanson were playing (take your time, Mal).
Chicago has an ugly history when it comes to abuse, toxicity, not giving its staff health care, racism and classism, and more. While the team is looking to remove itself from its past, it has a long way to go to be a viable franchise that wants to stay in Chicago — actually in Chicago, too — in terms of setting up its team with the best chance to succeed.
A rebrand is cute, but adding FC to your official name won’t make you seem more professional. Investing properly in your club will.
LoLakers Lost
lol
Until Next Time
I love you awesome nerds.
