Worth a thousand words: Keith Whamond ’04 found himself in the middle of a melee as Yankee right fielder Gary Sheffield cursed at and nearly punched Red Sox fan Chris House. Whamond profited by selling these shots to the New York Post and FHM Magazine.
I’ve been called plenty of names before. Lazy? Definitely. Cheap? Oh, sure. A jackass? Well, that’s getting a little harsh, but all right. I’ve even been called an idiot before. I’m sure at one point or another we all have. Still, how many of us can claim to have been called an idiot in front of millions upon millions of people on the back cover of the Daily News? That’s the exact situation I found myself in last Friday morning. Allow me to introduce myself. If you’re a sports fan, you may recognize me. Remember that Gary Sheffield fracas at Fenway Park in Boston last week? Remember all the gawked-eyed yokels in the crowd, stunned to watch the Yankees’ right fielder nearly throw a punch at a fan? Think hard. Remember a doofus with glasses, sitting directly behind the soon-to-be-ejected fan, sticking his camera in Sheffield’s face? Yeah, that was me. About three weeks ago, a fellow recent Fairfield U. alum friend of mine gave me a phone call and invited me up to Boston to watch the rubber match of the Yankees-Red Sox series. I’m a huge Yankees fan, and I’ve never been to Fenway before, so I said sure. As has already been well-documented elsewhere, there was a bit of an altercation at the game. Basically, things got pretty strange in the eighth inning. Jason Varitek hit a grounder to right field, Sheffield tried to field it, and apparently there was some contact between the hulking right fielder and the guy sitting directly in front of me. All of the sudden, Gary Freakin’ Sheffield is standing not a foot away from me, screaming, with his arm cocked back, ready to start throwing punches. The whole incident is mostly a blur. If it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve seen the video of it a million times on “Sportscenter,” I probably wouldn’t remember any of it clearly. I remember a lot of expletives being screamed, and I remember a lot of beer was flying everywhere. Actually, it reminded me a lot of Fairfield. This entire ordeal was unfolding all around me. I was stunned. Ever the journalist, I quickly made one of the best decisions of my life: I took my camera out of my pocket and started shooting. After it was over, our section was quickly flooded with all sorts of members of the media. I immediately whored myself out to anyone who would take my quote. I talked to the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the New York Post and the Daily News. As a newspaper man myself, and former managing editor of The Mirror, I framed my quotes perfectly and gave all the beat reporters exactly what they wanted to hear. Hey, this was once-in-a-lifetime thing. Better make use of it, right? Eventually, things died down, the guy was ejected, Sheffield calmed down and the Yankees lost 8-5. As soon as I got home, I checked out the pictures on my camera. They were a little blurry, but I thought they made for a pretty cool memento of a very strange trip to Fenway Park. The next day, I started getting phone calls from every newspaper in Boston and New York. Apparently, the New York Post and the Daily News found out that I had taken these up-close pictures of the while mess, and a mini-bidding war erupted for the rights to them. I ended up selling them to the Post for an embarrassing amount. I kid you not. By now, my 15 minutes of fame are all but over. All that’s left now are the newspaper clippings, the videogame of the YES replay of the game, and a check from Rupert Murdock’s own New York Post. The moral of the story is: if Gary Sheffield ever comes charging at you, do not touch him. Do not let anyone around you touch him. However, if someone around you does touch him, take a lot of pictures.
Keith Whamond ’04 is a former managing editor of The Mirror.
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