How an Insurer Is Taking Money From the Fan Beaten at Dodger Stadium
San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow, center, before announcing “Play Ball!” with third base coach Tim Flannery and Jeremy Affeldt before a game against the Kansas City Royals at AT&T Park on Oct. 25, 2014.
Photographer: Robert Beck /Sports Illustrated/Getty ImagesDave Stow, 71, strains to push the wheelchair carrying his 250-pound son, Bryan, up a series of ramps and into the basement of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Capitola, Calif., for its Friday fish fry. Bryan Stow is greeted by ladies who kiss him, men who hug him, and a 103-year-old woman who grabs his hand and asks if he is walking yet.
Four years ago, Bryan Stow was a strapping paramedic who spent his days off biking with his son and daughter. That was before March 31, 2011, when he and three friends made the mistake of wearing San Francisco Giants garb to an Opening Day game against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. They were harassed and threatened in the stands. Afterwards, two Dodgers fans beat Stow so savagely in a parking lot that doctors had to induce a coma to save him. He was hospitalized for seven months.