Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo jumped to the aid of second baseman Ketel Marte after a fan ridiculed the player’s late mother, according to MLB.com.
The incident happened when the Diamondbacks were playing the Chicago White Sox at Chicago’s Rate Field on June 24. Lovullo put his arm around Marte, who could be seen in tears during a pitching change in the bottom of the seventh inning, while shortstop Geraldo Perdomo stood by. It was unclear at that moment what had upset Marte, whose mother died in a 2017 car accident.
After the game, Lovullo said he heard what the fan, who looked directly at Marte, said. Lovullo chose not to repeat it, according to The Arizona Republic.
“I looked right at him when I heard,” Lovullo said. “I looked right at him and he looked at the person, as well. He put his head down and I could tell it had an immediate impact on him, for sure.”
“I just reacted as a dad would when I went out to change pitchers,” Lovullo added. “I could see he was sobbing. It hurt.”
MLB.com reported the fan was ejected from the game, which the Diamondbacks won, 4-1. Marte, 31, is a two-time All-Star who hit a home run in the first inning to help his team.
“(I told him), ‘I love you and I’m with you and we’re all together and you’re not alone,’” Lovullo said about the incident with the fan in an interview with Diamondbacks reporter Todd Walsh after the game. “No matter what happens, no matter what was said, or what you heard, that guy is an idiot. It shouldn’t have an impact on you.’”
Lovullo also said it’s his duty to rally around his players.
“It was a terrible moment,” he said. “Fans are nasty, and fans go too far, sometimes. And I love my players, and I’m going to protect them.”
“I’ve known Ketel for nine years, and he’s had some unbelievably great moments and some hardships, as well, and some really, really tough moments in his life,” he added. “And I know those. At the end of the day, we’re human beings and we have emotions. I saw him hurting, and I wanted to protect him.”
Lovullo also said there are limits to the types of things players can endure.
“We can take a lot. We sign up and we are in uniform to take a lot,” he said, according to MLB.com. “We’re prepared for that. But when you cross a line — and it’s a very firm, bold line — we become human beings.
Marte did not comment on the matter after the game, according to The Arizona Republic, but Perdomo said fan behavior is an issue that has to be addressed.
“Everybody knows Ketel has fun, plays the game hard, but I feel bad for him,” he said, according to MLB.com. “I feel mad about it. I don’t know who it was, but they’ve definitely got to do something. We cannot continue to do that (expletive) here in MLB. This is baseball, this is for the fans. They came here, they support us, but when they cross the line, we are not with that (expletive).”