A Pittsburgh Pirates game day employee has been suspended after getting into a physical altercation with a fan at PNC Park on Sunday. The heated exchange was caught on camera by a bystander and shared online, and occurred after the Pirates’ 4-0 loss to the San Diego Padres. According to CBS News, the confrontation began when a male fan and his friend allegedly started harassing a female worker at a concession stand. As a result, the game day employee intervened to help his female colleague, and tried to divert their attention away from her. Tensions quickly escalated, however.
As you can see in the clip above, the game day employee on the left — who is wearing a light blue polo shirt, black cap and beige trousers — is squaring up to the male fan on the right who reportedly harassed the female worker. While the confrontation begins with an exchange of fiery words and shouting, the incident quickly devolves into violence, as the game day worker throws the first handful of punches.
Making matters worse, the male fan steps away to take off his bag, coat, and cap to step up for round two, though another female bystander does try to intervene to stop them. “Guys, there’s kids around! Knock it off! Stop! Stop!” yells the woman, though her advice falls on deaf ears. As the two square up again, the male fan spits on the Pittsburgh Pirates employee, prompting the stadium worker to take off his belt and begin whipping the man with it.
Per CBS, the Pirates issued an official statement on Monday, writing, “We are aware of the unfortunate incident that occurred following the conclusion of yesterday’s game between a PNC Park game day employee and a guest. The employee’s behavior was entirely unacceptable, and he was immediately suspended. This incident is currently under further investigation.”
While the footage continues to circulate online, social media users weighed in with their thoughts and reactions to the heated confrontation. Over on Reddit, one user sympathised with the Pirates employee expressing, “Poor guy probably lost his job for serving justice.” while another chimed in with, “While the guy probably deserved it, the better course of action would have been to eject the guy and ban him for life from the stadium.”
The Pirates organization has condemned the employee’s rash actions as “entirely unacceptable” and announced the employee’s immediate suspension. At the time of writing, the team is conducting an internal investigation and is reviewing stadium security footage, in addition to the bystander’s video, to understand the full context of the event.
