Laurence Leavy, better known as Marlins Man, will not be attending tonight’s game 7 of the World Series between the Indians and the Cubs tonight in Cleveland in fear of his safety.
According to Leavy, he has been attacked drunk Indians fans in the past and has gotten several death threats on Twitter prior to the World Series finale.
Via Miami Herald
After attending Game 6 of the NBA Finals in Cleveland — where Leavy was noticed by LeBron James and treated well by local fans — he attended an Indians-White Sox game at Progressive Field the following day.
“They were super nice to me,” Leavy said of being at the Finals. “The city, the fans, everyone was great.”
After being put on the scoreboard and interacting with fans, things changed “around the fourth inning,” as Leavy says drunk fans threatened him with physical harm.
Some, Leavy says, were still upset about the Marlins beating the Indians in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series on Edgar Renteria’s RBI single in the 11th.”People were trying to take my visor, rip off my jersey,” he said.
“They were saying all kinds of things about the Marlins and Renteria. I was like ‘Renteria? That was 19 years ago!’ They were screaming at me. I guess I was the first person to wear Marlins orange at their stadium.
“At first I thought it was just a couple of drunks, so I started walking around the stadium and things just got worse to the point where I was asking concession workers for security. There was none.”
“The people in Cleveland attacked me,” Leavy says now. “The Cleveland Indians watched the video and tried to make things right, offered me 200 tickets for July 4th to bring police and firemen. I told them no and went to the Marlins-Mets games in New York.“I’ve never, in all my years, left a stadium in fear.”
“After getting dozens of death threats and hundreds of threats of violence against me, thousands of people I had to block [on Twitter], I decided it wasn’t worth my safety or health,” said Leavy, who says he has attended 94 World Series games and 27 Super Bowls over the years.
“How do I know there won’t be a wacko in Cleveland — or someone for Cleveland in Chicago — looking for me? Cleveland could have won that series in Chicago. I just figured it wasn’t worth risking my safety on these lunatics from Cleveland.”
It really sucks that Marlins Man can’t be at tonight’s due to some asshole fans. Hopefully Leavy is wearing his bright orange Marlins jersey tonight wherever he’s watching.