Proposing at a baseball stadium comes with a great deal of risk, but usually the fear of public rejection is related to a significant other rather than a player on the field.
New York infielder Gleyber Torres appeared to offer disapproval when a Yankees fan on Friday night proposed to a woman on the Yankee Stadium video board. It turns out, though, that his reaction was unrelated to the proposal, unlike what many in the crowd and at home initially believed. Instead, he said, he was joking with A’s catcher Josh Phegley crouched behind him.
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“Why do people take things out of context(?)” Torres wrote on Twitter after the game. “I was just having a simple conversation with the catcher.”
It’s typical for the video board operator to cut back to the batter’s box after panning the crowd, but that staple in the ballpark experience led to confusion in this instance. Even the NBC Sports California A’s TV broadcast, and a couple of beat writers, were fooled.
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“I have nothing against marriage because I’m happily married myself,” Torres added in his tweet, which has since been deleted.
Another issue with the video board cutaway: It was unclear whether the man received a “Yes” or “No.” Body language interpretation leans toward engagement, but we’re baseball experts here, not authorities on romance.
Hopefully the couple can get a good laugh out of the whole incident years from now.