Don't be so quick to judge

A man shared this with me:

I used to go once a year to baseball games. I had several reasons for sitting in the upper deck of baseball games that I would attend once a year in New York. Firstly, it put some distance between me and the gentiles who attended games. Often they drank or sat with their shirts off. They cursed. In the upper deck I could sit 100 feet away and be spared most of that. I worked this out with a rabbi, that this was a middle ground between never attending, which was a bit problematic since I grew up on baseball, and mingling more than was necessary. Secondly, I enjoyed the view of the grass. It felt like sitting in the mountains, which I never had occasion to do in the city. Thirdly, there's a breeze up there, and I usually attended in July when it's hot and humid in New York. Fourthly, I could watch the whole field and observe the full dimension of the game. Lastly, you don't have to worry about batted balls up there. People do get hit by balls. A Jewish women was killed by a ball in Los Angeles a few years back and a little girl suffered permanent brain damage at a different game recently. I study Torah for more than half the game, and in the upper deck I'm not distracted by concern of batted balls. This last reason wasn't the main reason. It was one of the reasons. Rav Avigdor Miller, who is one of my influences, emphasized that a person should exercise caution in matters of physical safety. He talked about this often. I was honoring his teaching. not only that but upper deck seats are $25 and mezzanine seats are $125. To me spending $125 for a baseball game is not justifiable. I could buy a sefer. I could give tzedukah. I could keep it in the bank. The players don't need to make $10,000,000 a year and if fans would refuse to pay ridiculously high prices, the inflated salaries would come down. All kinds of reasons go into the decision.

So I have my reasons. But when my son told a rabbi therapist that I sat in the upper deck to avoid batted balls the therapist criticized me to my son saying that my concern wasn't reasonable. 

A therapist shouldn't be passing judgement in general, but all the more so without knowing the facts. A rabbi shouldn't be criticizing a father. So what is this man? He is neither. And so it goes with nearly all rabbi-therapists, as most are just in it for the money and like most yeshiva guys can't seem to shut their mouths. 

woman killed at Dodgers game

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"Richie Ashburn hit a foul ball that struck a fan, Alice Roth, squarely in the face, breaking her nose. The game was then paused as medics came in to tend to Mrs. Roth. As they were carrying her away on a stretcher, play was resumed and Ashburn fouled off the first pitch thrown to him. This foul subsequently struck Mrs. Roth as she was being carried off by the medics. Roth was the wife of the sports editor for "The Philadelphia Bulletin", who was there with her two grandsons. The second foul ball broke a bone in her knee. There was blood everywhere."

Richie Ashburn later said about the event:

"I didn’t mean to do it. When I saw what happened, I felt terrible."

The Phillies showered Alice Roth and her grandsons with gifts.

They gave her grandson's, Preston and Tom a baseball signed by all of the players on the team, along with free tickets to future games.

In addition, the team gave the young boys a tour of their clubhouse and spent the afternoon talking baseball with them. Preston and Tom visited Alice in the hospital after the Phillies gave them the “star treatment.” One of the boys innocently asked:"Grandma, do you think you could go to an Eagles game and get hit in the face with a football?"