Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte revealed what the 22-year-old White Sox fan who was ejected from Rate Field on Tuesday night said to him that brought him to tears.
Marte, 31, told “Danny Beisbol” on Thursday that the fan, who was banned indefinitely from all MLB ballparks, yelled, “I sent your mom a text last night.” Marte spoke in Spanish and was translated through subtitles.
The Dominican’s mother, Elpidia Valdez, died in a car crash in 2017 in the Dominican Republic.
“What happened was in the seventh inning, I came to bat,” Marte said. “I’m ready at the plate, and I hear this fan shouting. He was on top of the dugout. He yelled at me, saying stuff about my mom. He was like, ‘I sent your mom a text last night.’ When everything happened with my mom, I was here in Chicago. I was in this city.”
Marte said it was the first time a fan had heckled him about his mom. He said fan behavior is “getting out of hand.”
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo consoled Marte after the incident. He heard what the fan said but didn’t want to repeat it to the media.