Nacho Man

Celebrity is a weird thing.


Take a few seconds to watch this video from last night.



It's an amusing video. The poor guy in the front row gets his nachos knocked out of his hands by Addison Russell flying in trying to catch a foul ball. In his attempt, Russell inadvertently kicks the dude's nachos and spills them on the field (and gets some on his arm.) A few innings later, he brings the guy some replacement nachos and poses for a picture.

It's a cool story to tell your friends today at work and to reminisce about with your girlfriend (who, coincidentally, is the person Russell landed on in his attempt to make the catch.)

But that's not the world we live in now. Nacho Man became a minor sensation on what was otherwise a fairly boring 10-2 game. He was first interviewed by the newspaper the Chicago Tribune. Then, an inning or so later, he was on television giving an interview about what it was like to have a player wind up in his girlfriend's lap and spilling his nachos. Hard hitting journalism this was not.

He tweeted the photo with Russell which obviously made the rounds among baseball fans.

Later, he got a foul ball and gave it to a kid (the correct thing to do, by the way, even if you have a kid at home) for which he drew praise. The game basically became a distraction from Nacho Man. Foul balls hit in the vicinity of Nacho Man were mentioned.

And you know what? It was fun. The guy was having the time of his life. People were walking down to his seat between innings for pictures with him. Someone even asked for his autograph.

 For a guy who just hoped to get a foul ball, he ended up having the story he'll tell when he's out for drinks with his friends or (hopefully) at the reception of their wedding. If this happened to me, I'd turn it in to a 7-part blog series and my wife would have to prohibit me from talking about it ever again or face imminent death.

I hope this guy enjoys his 15 minutes of fame.


Also, I really want to know what the person who got the autograph is going to do with it.