Rockin’ Steady

Only in America.  A few days ago, I post this video I took during the fourth inning of the Mets-Braves game at Shea last Saturday.  It involves a sleeping, probably quite drunk Met fan falling victim to a prank by some of his friends — a prank that turns into something truly special somewhere around the seven minute mark.  I send the link to a few places — Fanhouse, Always Amazin — and it catches on.  Eventually Deadspin gets a hold of it (I’ve decided to give them a bit of a vacation from getting things directly until Bert Blyleven makes the Hall of Fame.)  And by Thursday morning, the video has 33,000 hits.

The next day, my friend Scott tells me that he just heard the video mentioned on Howard Stern… for a good two or three minutes.  And that Stern really, really talked it up.  And sure enough, it’s all true:

And then the Daily News got involved.  And then by Friday, we’re over 150,000 hits.

What a country!

Meanwhile, a rather unfortunate wannabe opinion journalist condemns the video in amNY, which — as my friend Brian observes — is a newspaper so good, they literally cannot give it away for free.  Here is a taste of future Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Barker:

The video is both mesmerizing and sick: The whole time I’m watching this, I kept asking myself why are they doing this, why am I watching this and where is the Shea Stadium security? (In all fairness, a Shea usher does show up at the end of the video to put an end to the shenanigans.) …I’m not sure what exactly this video means, other then that the Mets bullpen has been so dreadful to watch lately that it’s much more entertaining to torment an inebriated fan. What it also means is that, for now, Mets fans are in major contention for the biggest sickos in New York, although they don’t have a lock on the honor.

Of course, the article demonstrates no effort to learn what actually happened.  I took some time to e-mail Ms. Barker, and her editors.  From that missive:

I am a big believer in constructive criticism.  To that end, I only offer this:  Either a quick query to the person who posted the video, or a perusal of the posts to the video by commenters, including friends AND relatives of the sleeping fellow who have checked in, would have revealed that a) the people stacking the cups were his friends, b) the guy was fine and c) the guy found it absolutely hilarious upon waking up, joking with fans around him as they explained what happened and signing autographs for the people who had posed with him.  I am generally suspicious of articles that do not quote a single individual, as all readers should be.  This is why.  The further absence of perspective displayed by you was striking — I tend to think that stacking a cup on a sleeping friend’s head is not akin to Jets fans literally sexually assaulting female fans in Gate D.  Perhaps my view is skewed by my stubborn reluctance to trivialize sexual assault.  (I also, given still recent world events in Iraq and elsewhere in the world, would be loathe to trivialize terms like “torment”, particularly in newspapers.  This is, perhaps, a character flaw on my part.)

As an opinion writer, you are still a journalist.  As such, some exercise of journalistic ethics would be appropriate in the future.  Make a call.  Write an e-mail.  Ask a question.  Do the research.   Find out what actually happened.  You strike me as a not-incapable writer who could blossom into something not putrid, rather than an even more journalistically bankrupt version of Andrea Peyser.  Keep working on it.

No response yet.

Who knows how far this video will go.  But I’m just glad that thousands have gotten to share in what was, honestly, a very funny (and harmless) moment involving a guy who proved to be a very good sport.

Update:  Apparently, the video was also featured on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Friday night, and in the LA Times.  Unreal.