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Party crasher: World Series fan creates buzz with Marlins jersey

October 24, 2014
In this Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014, photo, Miami Marlins fan Laurence Leavy, rear right, is shown wearing a bright orange Marlins jersey during Game 2 of baseball's World Series in Kansas City, Mo. Leavy's orange Marlins jersey made him easy to spot amid a sea of Kansas City Royals blue. He said a Royals official approached him offering to move him to the team owner's suite, but Leavy declined. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

In this Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014, photo, Miami Marlins fan Laurence Leavy, rear right, is shown wearing a bright orange Marlins jersey during Game 2 of baseball’s World Series in Kansas City, Mo. Leavy’s orange Marlins jersey made him easy to spot amid a sea of Kansas City Royals blue. He said a Royals official approached him offering to move him to the team owner’s suite, but Leavy declined. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

MIAMI (AP) — Among the standouts at Games 1 and 2 of the World Series was a Miami Marlins fan in the front row behind home plate.

Laurence Leavy’s orange Marlins jersey made him easy to spot amid a sea of Kansas City Royals blue. He said a Royals official approached him offering to move him to the team owner’s suite, but Leavy declined.

“The guy said, ‘The owner’s not really happy. He thinks you’re distracting the fans,’” Leavy said Friday. “I didn’t want to move. I paid a lot of money for that seat.”

Two nights of network TV air time made Leavy a celebrity. Since the World Series began, he said, his followers on Twitter have climbed from 175 to 6,800.

“Every Korean and Japanese station that follows American baseball has been calling me all night long for two days for an interview,” he said.

The 58-year-old South Florida attorney described himself as a sports geek who can afford to travel to games around the country because he has no wife or children.

“One day I woke up and said, I know what will make me happy — go do stuff in person I’ve been watching on TV,” he said.

He has been traveling to big events for 15 years, buying tickets online. Leavy attended last year’s World Series, and this season’s AL and NL Championship Series. Earlier this year he attended 18 NBA playoff games around the country in 20 days.

Leavy specializes in workmen’s compensation and does most of his work from the road.

Whether he’s attending a baseball, football, hockey, tennis or golf event, Leavy always wears an orange Marlins jersey. He owns six of them and has considered them good luck ever since he wore one to a Miami Heat playoff game and the home team rallied for a victory.

Leavy has been a Marlins season-ticket holder since their first season in 1993. He always tries to sit in the front row behind home plate at baseball games, judging it the best seat in the house.

That’s why he turned down the Royals’ proposal to move, even though they offered him a Kansas City jersey, bat and ball autographed by this year’s team. The offer came in the sixth inning of Game 1.

“If I move to the owner’s suite, my friends couldn’t see me,” Leavy said. “And I don’t know if I could have enjoyed the game higher up.”

Leavy spoke by phone from Las Vegas and was en route to San Francisco for Game 3 on Friday night.

He already had a ticket for Games 6 and 7 back in Kansas City.

“I should be in the same spot, which won’t make Royals happy,” Leavy said. “But I don’t care.”