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beware of the flying fat man!!

300-pound man crushes fan at Shea
BY ZACHARY DOWDY
zachary.dowdy@newsday.com

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April 11, 2007, 10:20 PM EDT

Ellen Massey always counted being struck by a baseball or a bat at Shea Stadium among the hazards of being a Mets fan, but she never thought a 300-pound man would come crashing down the stands -- and onto her.

That's what the Manhattan resident, 58, said happened on Monday, Opening Day at Shea.

Shortly after the seventh-inning stretch, she said, a man dressed in a green Army-type jacket tumbled from higher seats and onto her back, knocking the wind out of her and, ultimately, causing serious injury.

"I only know he came flying," Massey, 58, said Wednesday from her bed in Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. "I was literally not able to breathe for about half-a-minute or so. The first thing I was aware of was not being able to breathe, and then when I was able to breathe I was aware of the pain in my lower back."

Massey, who is a lawyer, is scheduled for surgery on a vertebra on Friday. After she was injured, she said, she was attended to by two emergency medical technicians who were in the stands watching the game, and then by Shea's own medics, who stabilized her head and neck area and took her to a local hospital.

She was transferred to Jacobi on Wednesday.

A Mets spokesman declined to comment Wednesday night.

Massey's nephew, Peter Rubens, 35, of Brooklyn, said the first sign that something was amiss was a splash of beer flying onto her at about 4 p.m., then a bump from the man, who is unidentified.

"We were sitting and watching the ball game," he said. "And in a split-second a rather large person, a man, came sort of tumbling down upon us and basically landed on my aunt's head and neck."

Rubens said he couldn't make out distinguishing features of the man, who got up quickly and left. The nephew said he was most concerned at the moment about his aunt, who had begun gesturing that she couldn't breathe.

Going to Opening Day at Shea has become a family tradition for him and his relatives, a ritual dating back two decades, Rubens said.

Massey, who said she goes to six or seven games a season, said she started going to the opener with family two years ago.

"I have to say that in going to a baseball park, the only fear that has ever entered my mind is that I'd get hit by a hard ball," she said.

"I didn't expect a 300-pound human missile to hit me in the back. That doesn't come up on my list of fears."

Comments

  • Do ya think that alcohol was just a tad bit involved here?
    image

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  • MorgothMorgoth Posts: 3,950 ✭✭✭
    How do they know he weighed 300lbs?
    Currently completing the following registry sets: Cardinal HOF's, 1961 Pittsburgh Pirates Team, 1972 Pittsburgh Pirates Team, 1980 Pittsburgh Pirates Team, Bill Mazeroski Master & Basic Sets, Roberto Clemente Master & Basic Sets, Willie Stargell Master & Basic Sets and Terry Bradshaw Basic Set
  • I dunno, something smells fishy:
    1-No other witnesses other than family members
    2-security doesn't catch the guy, he just disappears?
    3-Good call, how do they know he was 300 pounds?
    4-oh, how convenient, she just happens to be a lawyer.
    Maybe I'm wrong & more info will come out that will shead light on this this, but right now, it looks like somebody's lookin' to get paid.
  • kcballboykcballboy Posts: 1,405 ✭✭✭


    << <i>I dunno, something smells fishy:
    1-No other witnesses other than family members
    2-security doesn't catch the guy, he just disappears?
    3-Good call, how do they know he was 300 pounds?
    4-oh, how convenient, she just happens to be a lawyer.
    Maybe I'm wrong & more info will come out that will shead light on this this, but right now, it looks like somebody's lookin' to get paid. >>



    Perhaps he was a 300 lb ninja. He made his attack then slipped away quietly into the crowd, completely unnoticed.
    Travis
  • I can't see a 300 lb fatty tumbling out of 'higher seats' landing on some poor woman (and seats/stairs etc) being able to just get up and run off. The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and the harder it is for them to get back up.
    Next MONTH? So he's saying that if he wins, the best-case scenario is that he'll be paying for it two weeks after the auction ends?

    Forget blocking him; find out where he lives and go punch him in the nuts. --WalterSobchak 9/12/12



    image


    Looking for Al Hrabosky and any OPC Dave Campbells (the ESPN guy)
  • MorgothMorgoth Posts: 3,950 ✭✭✭
    Maybe he was trained at the Chris Farley Beverly Hills Ninja Academy
    Currently completing the following registry sets: Cardinal HOF's, 1961 Pittsburgh Pirates Team, 1972 Pittsburgh Pirates Team, 1980 Pittsburgh Pirates Team, Bill Mazeroski Master & Basic Sets, Roberto Clemente Master & Basic Sets, Willie Stargell Master & Basic Sets and Terry Bradshaw Basic Set
  • stevekstevek Posts: 29,033 ✭✭✭✭✭
    There's rumors this guy might be Grote15 image
  • grote15grote15 Posts: 29,694 ✭✭✭✭✭
    C'mon SteveK, give me some credit, man, when I go out to Shea I sit in Field Level Box seats, not the upper deck!


    Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
  • stevekstevek Posts: 29,033 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I was at Shea in 1964 as a kid when the stadium was in its first season...Family lived in Connecticut. Then the fam moved to Philly in 1965.

    True story - we were deciding what Phillies game at Shea in 1964 to attend one weekend, whether to go to the Saturday game or the Sunday game - my father was from Philly, living in CT for business reasons, and so he wanted to see the Phillies play. If you know Mets history you might already see this coming...yes, we chose the Saturday game and dammit Jim Bunning pitches a perfect game the next day...but no way anyone could possibly know that so we of course didn't worry about missing a spectacular event...but still...why couldn't we have chosen the Sunday game instead? LOL

    Steve
  • RipublicaninMassRipublicaninMass Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭
    I bet it was Comic book guy
  • image
    Next MONTH? So he's saying that if he wins, the best-case scenario is that he'll be paying for it two weeks after the auction ends?

    Forget blocking him; find out where he lives and go punch him in the nuts. --WalterSobchak 9/12/12



    image


    Looking for Al Hrabosky and any OPC Dave Campbells (the ESPN guy)
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