SAN DIEGO — A baseball tossed to a San Diego Padres fan by Texas right fielder Juan Gonzalez turned out to be a hot potato for the red-faced Rangers.
Padres fan Deborah Calimlin had been asking Gonzalez for a ball during Saturday’s game. When he finally tossed her one, it had the inscription “Here’s your … ball, redneck” written on it.
The Rangers had some explaining to do because the woman turned the ball over to a Padres official, who showed it to Rangers spokesman Brad Horn.
Gonzalez, who’s been booed for asking out of the All-Star game because he wasn’t voted in as a starter, had nothing to do with the inscription, Horn said.
“This ball was never intended to leave the playing surface,” Horn said Sunday. “It was the bullpen’s shenanigans with the outfield.”
Horn said center fielder Ruben Mateo and left fielder Rusty Greer were having problems getting balls thrown to them from the bullpen so they could warm up in the field between innings.
When the bullpen finally threw out a ball, it was the one with the offending message, which Horn said was written by bullpen catcher Ken Guthrie. The message was intended for Greer.
After going into the Rangers bullpen chasing a foul ball, Gonzalez picked up a ball laying on the ground there and tossed it to Calimlin, whose seat is along the railing, Horn said.
The Rangers will make a formal apology to Calimlin and plan to give her a ball autographed by Gonzalez, Horn said.
Guthrie didn’t face any kind of disciplinary action, according to Horn.
How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?… Yeah… Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would’ve been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind.