[Official] World Series: Astros vs. Nationals

Youre telling me....I was there behind the dugout and I also had 5k on the Astros series bet that I took after game 2. I still cant believe why the fk Chirinos tried bunting.

 

Why? You want me to commit suicide? Cold man, cold.

 

Astros sued again, this time for having 2 fans arrested during Game 7

That the Houston Astros were sued Wednesday is not surprising, other than that the dispute has nothing to do with sign stealing. But like sign-stealing lawsuits brought by disgruntled season ticket holders, this one has to do with two very unhappy fans.

Benjamin Oehlert and Brandon Day filed a lawsuit in Texas state court saying they were arrested while in their seats during Game 7 of last year’s World Series at Minute Maid Park for allegedly having fake tickets. They dispute that their tickets were impure, and are seeking up to $1 million apiece for their ordeal. The two were arrested in their seats, taken to the stadium “jail,” which houses unruly fans, and then to a local jail where they spent the night. A judge later dismissed those charges.

“They’re Astros fans, you know, that’s important to them,” said Brandon Kinard, one of their attorneys with KGS Law Group. “They’re Astros fans. I mean, I’m a big-time Astros fan. My whole family are Astros fans. Everyone at my law firm is a fan I think. And so this is a team that we love.

“But that doesn’t excuse bad behavior when you hurt someone, and so what they did to my clients was unconscionable to arrest them that way and to hold them that way, that humiliated them,” he said. “And then they press charges against them and you know that the humiliation endured; they had to go to criminal court, had to hire a lawyer before a judge dismissed the cases. So this is something that it’s pretty serious and the love for the Astros doesn’t wash it away.”

The Astros declined to comment.

“We tried to work this out,” Kinard said. “And we reached out to the Astros multiple times by both letter and phone calls. But they never returned our letters, they never returned our calls. And so we’ve spelled out our claims to them before today. And they’ve just never responded to us. And so they basically ignored us.”

Asked if that was unusual, Kinard replied, “That’s highly unusual for a professional company like the Astros to not respond. Even if they felt there was another side to the story. Then they would at least be professional, and give us their response. The fact that they haven’t, I’m not really sure what to make of it.”

Day and Oehlert bought their tickets legitimately, Kinard said, and they passed through a stadium gate and security. It was in the fifth inning that they were approached by security and the police, Kinard said, and arrested for allegedly having counterfeit tickets and charged with criminal trespass. Their seats were in the lower bowl.

The lawsuit, filed in Harris County, seeks damages between $100,000 and $1 million, though Kinard said that range is a placeholder for these types of lawsuits. The Astros have until May 11 to reply, he said.

The lawsuit alleges malicious criminal prosecution, false imprisonment, breach of agreement, deceptive trade practices and negligence. The Astros are also being sued in the same court system by season ticket holders seeking redress from the sign-stealing scandal. A similar federal case brought against the team by aggrieved daily fantasy sports contestants was tossed earlier this month. And the team still faces a lawsuit by former Blue Jays pitcher Mike Bolsinger, who alleges the sign stealing ruined his career.

 

So were the tickets legit or not? Yes, they bought them "legally", but still doesn't mean that they're not counterfeit.

Article glosses over that fact... and I'm sure if somebody enters the stadium with fake tickets, the team is allowed to do what they did.

 

So if you buy tickets to this years World Series, which will be here in Houston as we beat the Reds, and those tickets end up being counterfeit, you are ok with them arresting you and putting you in jail for being duped?

 

Why does it have to be jail? Why not just escort them out?

 

exactly! Escort them from the seats and explain the situation, hell if you truly think the poor people got scammed the last thing you should do is put them in jail

 

If I sold you those tickets for 50% less than what the going rate was... and I sent you an electronic version of the tickets, would you take them and feel 100% confident they were legit?

Again, depends on what actually happened. Article says they bought the tickets “legitimately”. What does that mean?

Even third market sellers like stubhub and SeatGeek are still affiliated with the official tickets, albeit with a huge service charge (which I was apparently happy to pay for WS tickets in 2017 and 2019). If they bought their tickets through one of them, those companies would be having to face severe consequences... and this would have been a much bigger story, much sooner.

If they ended up buying them from a random person... I’m not sure they’re going to have much of a case. As far as them suing the Astros for their punishment... if the Astros have established guidelines that this is how they handle these issues, there’s also not going to be much of a case. I agree, it seems excessive, but unless the stadium/team workers decided to go rogue that night and do something they’ve never done before, I’m not sure its got merit.

 

This is standard practice in every sporting arena in America.

There is more to this story beside what the plaintiff's attorney says.

 

If that's the case, then it really does feel like the media is on a smear campaign against the Astros.

 

The Athletic owes a huge debt of gratitude to the Astros. Was a fledgling pay-for-service online till the sign-stealing story broke. Now they have a following but still getting plenty of complaints that you have to pay for its content.

But yes... this is pretty much a non-story, but during COVID times you have desperate measures for sports clicks. Joe Kelly breaking one of his house's windows while practicing in the backyard is currently front-page news on ESPN. Seriously.

 

I went through Vivid to get mine in 17, I wouldn't risk just buying from someone I didn't know. I could have saved a couple of hundred buying them on the street, but wasn't willing to take that chance

All I'm saying is, if I did buy from a guy on the street and was ripped off for about a grand....the last thing that should happen to me after that is being put in jail by the team I just paid huge bucks to support

 

It sure does suck... but hence the risks of buying sketchy tickets from unverified brokers. Them paying huge bucks for those counterfeit tickets did nothing to support the team, simply supported the broker. See Castor's analogy above of buying a stolen car.

In the end, the lawsuit is over the punishment they received... which is apparently standard punishment for using fake tickets (knowingly or unknowingly).

 

The way the article is written makes it seem like they unknowingly bought illegitimate tickets and the gate people unknowingly let them in. If this is the case, how can the Astros be faulted for following what I assume to be standard procedure?

 

The article is so poorly written. What prompted the security guards to approach them to begin with? There is more to this story.

 

Probably when the legit tickets were eventually scanned, it registered as having already been used?

Counterfeiters do have the ability to see which tickets are unsold on the third party websites... I'm guessing that's how they end up selling fake tickets that haven't already been sold legit elsewhere.

 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/te...wsuit-Astros-Game-7-World-Series-15203352.php

Benjamin Oehlert, 32, and Brandon Day, 33, both of La Porte, seek damages between $100,000 and $1 million in the lawsuit as compensation for medical care, physical pain, loss of earning capacity, mental anguish, harm to their reputations and attorneys’ fees.

Houston attorney Brandon Kinard of KGS Law Group said Oehlert and Day were charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass after being arrested at the stadium during the fifth inning of Game 7 on Oct. 30. 2019. He said they were placed in a holding cell “with drunks and other who had acted out at the game” and spent the night at the Harris County jail before being released on bond.

Harris County Court at Law Judge Darrell Jordan dismissed the charges a week later, finding no probable cause to pursue the case, court records show.

Kinard said the two La Porte men bought Game 7 tickets either from a friend or on the secondary market and that bar codes for the tickets were scanned as the men entered the ballpark. He said he did not know how much the men paid for the tickets and if they were presented on a mobile phone or as a printed document.

The Astros are accused of malicious criminal prosecution, false imprisonment, breach of contract, violation of the state Deceptive Trade Practices Act and negligence.

Kinard said the men attempted to explain to authorities how they purchased the tickets and that attorneys attempted to reach a settlement of the men’s grievances against the ballclub before filing suit.

The case was assigned to 152nd state District Judge Robert Schaffer.

An Astros spokesperson said the team had no comment on the lawsuit.

 

That makes sense. I’m not sure how those ticket scanners or counterfeiting works but that’s a reasonable explanation for how they could have initially gotten in and been approached later. My only other question is wether or not there were further measures that could have been taken by the ticket people to prevent entry that weren’t. If that is the case I could see how the Astros could be portrayed as negligent. That would still be a weak case though imo.

 

I guessing its not that hard to replicate some of the bar codes... especially if the counterfeiter has other real tickets on hand and a barcode generator that's able to decipher the algorithm of those.

Granted, its just a guess. Also, pretty sure ticketmaster is the company in charge of generating these tickets and selling to all parties (including stub hub) for all teams. If its a barcode issue, probably needs to be vetted with them.