Early this morning, The St. Petersburg Times had a blurb in their sports section about an alleged altercation between a Rays fan and a Phillies player following the Phils 10-4 loss on Thursday night. Here’s what it said:

PHILLIE, FAN FIGHT: An incident took place between a fan and a Phillies player after Thursday’s game, the Rays confirmed. ”At this point it is a police matter and for that reason we won’t have any further comment,” the team said in a statement, but did not identify the player. St. Petersburg Police officials could not be reached late Friday night, but a dispatcher confirmed that a report for a battery call was taken at the stadium at about 11 p.m. Thursday. The Phillies could not be reached for comment.

So, like an asshole, I spent majority of the morning placing calls to the St. Pete Times and the St. Pete police department posing as an actual reporter trying to put a name to this unidentified Phillies player only to have Matt P from The 700 Level hit me on the GChat telling me it was J.C. Romero.  How did he know this?  Because commenter willH. left this little nugget on their site yesterday:

poppa will.H said a rays fan shoved something he wanted autographed into JC romeros face and they got into a lengthy pushing/shouting match infront of the phils dugout after the game last night

But because Matt P isn’t one of those bloggers that just randomly posts unsubstantiated reports as fact and couldn’t confirm with “poppa will.H” or any of the Phillies scribes, he decided to wait until he got some sort of proof.  Now, the entire world is reporting that it was, in fact, J.C. Romero who grabbed some shit-talking Rays fan by the throat and threatened to choke a bitch.

Via the newest St. Petersburg Times report:

Robert Eaton [Ed. Note: I hate Eatons], a 25-year-old father of two, said Phillies pitcher J.C. Romero grabbed him by the neck and pushed him after he made a comment about steroids.

[...]Eaton said he was attempting to get autographs from Phillies players when the incident happened.  After players brushed him off, Eaton said he called out to Romero, something to the effect of, “How about you get me some juice?”

Romero snapped, Eaton said, telling him to “shut the f—- up” and that he didn’t know what he was talking about.  Eaton said he replied that Romero was the one who’d been suspended recently.

“He reared back and kinda grazed my chin and grabbed me by the neck and threw me back,” Eaton said. “I was in shock.”

Eaton’s lawyer, James Magazine, said he was retained late Friday afternoon and hasn’t had time to investigate the case.

What in the name of Mario Lavandeira is going on in this world?  Since when are people surprised when they talk shit to somebody and get punched and/or choked out?

Fuck this guy.  +1 J.C. Romero.

BONUS! Here’s some fans in Mets land giving it to Romero a few weeks ago.  Instead of choking them (because he obviously couldn’t reach them), he mocks them and tells ‘em to “go smoke more weed.”  haha

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