Heads Up Fans

Last night in the bottom of the sixth of the Yankees/Red Sox game the Red Sox were down 5-4 and had a runner on first. Jason Varitek, the switch hitting catcher, was batting left handed. They ran a hit and run and he hit a ground ball down the third base line which rolled all the wall to the corner in left field. Reddick, the runner on first scored easily and Varitek ended up on second. What was remarkable about the play was the behavior of the Red Sox fans. You could see them all consciously pull back as the ball hit the wall near them. Not out of fear, because it wasn't hit very hard at all, but to be sure they did not interfere with the play and thereby turn the hit into a ground rule double which would have left the run that scored on third base. I love stuff like that. You can bet, as Curt Schilling said while calling the game, that if that ball had been hit by a Yankee batter that someone would have caught or at least touched the ball to make sure than run didn't score.

You can see this in the TV screenshot I took. The ball is right next to the fan in the white shirt with blue horizontal stripes. You can see they are taking care to not touch the ball.