Austin Capobianco walked through the gates of Yankee Stadium before Game 4 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, sat down in his seat just above the wall down the right-field line, and began cheering for the home team.
Until one play changed his life.
It has been more than three months since Capobianco grabbed Mookie Betts’ glove trying to pry it open and retrieve the foul ball he caught but nobody has forgotten about it. Capobianco is reminded about it daily.
“All the stuff my family has had to deal with because of me,” Capobianco said to The Athletic. “The nonstop phone calls. The people sending me pictures of their ugly looking penises. The packages.”
The backlash has Capobianco regretting his actions and wishing the whole thing “never happened.”
His punishment from Major League Baseball is a ban from all 30 parks and it was deserved. He knew he was going to be ejected from the game but didn’t know how bad the incident was.
Since then, he refuses to watch the video. If he’s watching tv and the clip is aired, he changes the channel.
“I want nothing to do with that memory,” he said recently.
Capobianco shared several voicemails with The Athletic from unknown caller ID’s or Southern California area codes.
“Have fun watching Game 5 from home, ass hat.”
“F— you, you piece of s—. You’ve got karma coming to you. Watch your back, b—-.”
“You’re a f—— idiot and a joke, fatass.”
Since that day, Capobianco avoids his phone and social media. He spends his days working at the family business and loves to travel. He admits to being “a good dude who did a dumb thing on camera.”
While he can’t attend any MLB games, MLB-sponsored events, or any minor league games owned by major league teams, Capobiano is hoping he will fade into a memory so he can return to living his life.
“I’m a hero in Yankees land. I’m a villain in America,” he said. “I don’t really care. I just want to be forgotten about. That’s it. I want people to forget about me.”
