How To Deal With Angry, Suing Fans

Remember that A's-Rangers game from a couple of years ago, when Rangers reliever Frank Francisco threw a chair into the stands and broke some lady's nose? Well, that lawsuit in still going on, and it appears the Rangers are sparing no expense in their quest to discredit the lady's husband, whose heckling might have started the whole incident.

According to the East Bay Express, Craig Bueno, the screamer who pissed off the Rangers so badly in the first place, is being smeared by the Rangers in the suit. The team is digging up dirt on him, like his supposed "explicit" pictures in his firehouse (he's a fireman), in order to, uh ... well, we're not really quite sure what it has to do with the lawsuit, actually.

Attorneys for the Rangers deny they are trying to smear Bueno, whom they have countersued. "We didn't go digging up dirt — these witnesses came to us," Rangers lawyer Joel Halverson told Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch last week. ... The team also argues that Bueno is at least partially responsible for his wife's injuries because of his outrageous taunting of relief pitchers in the visiting bullpen, which ultimately led Francisco to toss the chair.

To be honest, we had forgotten about this whole incident, but we're definitely going to be keeping an eye on it now. It's just instructive to remember that if your wife is hit in the face with a chair thrown by a Major League Baseball player, you better make sure your closet is clear of skeletons. Or naked pictures, anyway.

Playing Hardball [East Bay Express]