I Stand With Joey Votto

It took some innings, but Joey Votto & a @Reds fan sorted everything out.

Full Story: https://t.co/iCNjYJulXz pic.twitter.com/bwznPWocJB

— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 3, 2016

Joey Votto is going to get a lot of flak for placing his hands on a fan and he probably should. After all, even the kid in the background of that picture immediately knew what he was doing was frowned upon. That said, I'm a results oriented person, and if fan interference is something we want to get out of baseball then the big leaguer that just gripped up a middle aged man for potentially costing his team an inning ending out provided a public service.

You know who wishes that an incident like this happened decades ago? Steve Bartman. If that dork thought that semi-threatening public shaming from a physically imposing presence was a possibility then he never would have reached out and cost his Cubs another decade+ of misery. You want to interfere with a professional baseball game then professional baseball players should be able to interfere with your safe space. Why can't we make that a two way street when everyone knows that one way streets do nothing more than cause massive confusion? Fact is, the only person who felt like an idiot after this confrontation was the fan and that's how you know a not-so-friendly reminder of who he was rooting for just might have been necessary. Sure, he got a signed ball and a photo op out of it, but if Joey Votto had it his way he would have had to turn over dignity at the door before going home empty handed. He would have had to walk back to his car kicking himself for not being wary of what's best for his team. Unfortunately the public relations team has a job to do, or this guy really would have felt like a jackass watching himself get punked on the nightly news.