“We condemn Rob Manfred’s unwillingness to hold players accountable for bringing shame to our beautiful sport,” Kanter said over the megaphone. “Remember: Cheating is wrong. Please do not cheat.”

He added in a phone interview after the game: “I thought it was a big enough stage to get that point across and hopefully just drive home that point because the apologies that the Astros have offered up to this point have been unimpressive, and also about the lack of any sort of punishment to the players directly.”

Kanter said he wasn’t seeking attention for himself — which he admitted was odd for a man using a powerful megaphone during a nationally televised baseball game. He was initially hesitant to give his full name when a reporter first reached out.

But Kanter believed that those Astros players — and Manfred — needed to hear directly from a fan during a season in which that hasn’t happened much at the stadiums. “I was trying to speak for baseball fans,” he said.

Kanter’s address was short — “I didn’t want to go on a long soliloquy about ethics,” he said — and relatively early in the game, by design. He said he didn’t want to disrupt his neighbors or the action on the field.

Despite the Astros’ victory, the Rays lead the best-of-seven series, three games to one, and sit one win away from reaching the World Series. Like many fans outside Houston, Kanter has found himself pulling for the Rays partly because of the Astros’ transgressions.

Fans of rival teams also cheered the mysterious heckler for his actions on Wednesday night, some even labeling him a hero or deserving of an award. Told of this, Kanter laughed.

Source: New York Times

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