Robert Szasz
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Robert Szasz, also known as The Happy Heckler, is a real estate developer and a well-known heckler at Tampa Bay Rays baseball games.
A native of Toronto, Ontario, Szasz relocated to Florida in 1984 and now resides in Clearwater, Florida. He held season tickets for the Rays until the end of the 2008 season, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and sat in the club seats behind home plate at Tropicana Field during Rays games.[1] He picked one player from the opposing team to insult during a game or series. He waited until the player stepped into the batter's box, and then he let fly with a barrage of insults regarding the player's playing ability. His voice was so loud that it is often heard on television broadcasts of the game.
Szasz's heckling visibly rattled players on multiple occasions. He once heckled the Mariners' Bret Boone so viciously that when Boone struck out, he threw down his batting helmet and started yelling back at Szasz. In another instance, outfielder Jose Guillen offered Szasz an autographed baseball bat if he would stop heckling him in a game. Szasz says he didn't heckle with profanity, nor did he insult a player about a personal thing such as weight or height. He says he tried to only heckle a player on their baseball ability. Although extremely rare, Szasz has also heckled opposing pitchers.
Szasz became a controversial figure. There are many fans, television viewers and media that covered the Rays that complained about his loudness and abrasiveness, and there were others that enjoyed his heckling. Still, he became one of the more famous fans in Tampa Bay Rays baseball history, and was known throughout the American League. He has written a book entitled, The Happy Heckler (ISBN 1419610481).
Since January 2009, banks have filed five lawsuits saying he has stopped paying on more than $9 million in loans that he personally signed for. Wachovia Bank has served notice that it intends to foreclose on his 7,000-square-foot waterfront home on Snell Isle, which carries a $3.1 million mortgage. Big cost to keep a little 15 minutes of fame going as long as possible it seems as it is specualted this was the only way to keep going to his games. [2]
References
- ^ When shown occasionally on camera during games, he was located in Section 101, Row D, Seat 1. Example, Florida Marlins @ Tampa Bay Rays, Marlins broadcast on FSN Florida, 2008-06-13
- ^ Bank gives Tampa Bay Rays' high-profile heckler a Bronx cheer - St. Petersburg Times