Legal papers add to woes for Red Sox
During the Red Sox’s late-season swoon, Boston pitchers have been more than accommodating to opposing hitters.
Red Sox left-hander Erik Bedard also extended that courtesy to an unabashed New York Yankees fan who served him legal papers at Fenway Park on Tuesday shortly before his start against the Baltimore Orioles.
The papers, filed by Bedard’s ex-girlfriend Courtney Roberts, were requesting an increase in child support for the pitcher’s 5-year-old daughter.
While it’s hard to sympathize with the one served in a child support case, process server Tom Cabral made that possible.
Not only did he wear a Yankees shirt for his meeting with Bedard, he also bragged about it beforehand on Facebook, posting “I get to serve a starting pitcher for the Red Sox at Fenway should I wear a Yankees shirt????! Of course I will!!!!!!”
The timing, in the middle of a playoff race, also apparently was intentional.
“(The Red Sox) legal department was joking with me about it they were saying, ‘That’s why you’re so adamant about doing it today you’re a Yankees fan,’ ” Cabral told the New York Post. “They asked me if I could serve these tomorrow because he was starting tonight. My position was, my client wants it served today, and that’s what I have to do.
“When I walked in I was like, I’m a Yankees fan, but I’m not trying to (give you a hard time). I told (Bedard) that and said, sorry, I’ve got to do this. But he said it was no problem. I handed him the copies of all the documents, and he signed them.”
Bedard lasted only 2 2/3 innings in a 7-5 loss to the Orioles but said his pregame visitor didn’t distract him.
“If you play a sport, you have to put all that stuff aside,” he said after the game. “If you let outside distractions get to you, you can’t focus out there.”
Red Sox fans must be dreading the day Bedard pitches when he is distracted.
■ IGNORANT FAN — Former Boston Bruin Mike Milbury once climbed into the stands during an NHL game and beat a New York Rangers fan with the fan’s shoe.
If ever someone deserved the same fate, it was the unidentified fan who threw a banana at Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds — one of the few black players in the NHL — just before he scored in a shootout in Thursday’s preseason game against the Detroit Red Wings in Ontario.
“Hopefully that wasn’t directed toward me for being black,” Simmonds said. “Because if it was, that’s just somebody being ignorant.
“When you’re black, you kind of expect (racist) things. You learn to deal with it.”
Had the fan who threw the banana been caught, one of Simmonds’ teammates, who wished to remain anonymous, gladly would have administered punishment.
“I would have went and kicked that fan’s (butt) myself,” the teammate said. “That’s just not right.”
■ OPPOSITION ENVY — South Dakota football coach Ed Meierkort has special plans today for Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson, whose sixth-ranked Badgers are favored by 48 points over the Coyotes.
“I’m gonna ask the quarterback for his autograph,” he said. “I think he might win the Heisman Trophy.”
COMPILED BY TODD DEWEY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
