If you've watched the first two games of the World Series, you may have a question along these lines: Who is Marlins Man?
And if you don't know him by his nickname, you should know him by sight. Marlins Man was seated right behind home plate for the first two games, decked out in incongruous orange Miami Marlins gear -- despite the fact that it's the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals vying for the World Series trophy.
After stealing the show during the series' first two games in Kansas City, Marlins Man is now San Francisco-bound for games three, four and five. So just who is our mysterious anti-hero?
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Marlins Man is actually a 58-year-old Miami lawyer named Laurence Leavy. He's wealthy, a huge sports fan, and as he explained to the Kansas City Star this week: “I never had any kids, nor have any wife ... You don’t have to pay for a wife and kids, so you have money in the bank.”
When he first started popping up on TV broadcasts from his $8,000 seat behind home plate this week, some people couldn't quite handle the baseball dissonance.
Who is this guy in the bright orange Marlins gear? #WrongTeam #VisorsCrooked #WorldSeries— Jessob Reisbeck (@jessob_reisbeck) October 22, 2014
Who is this Marlins fan and why does he have so much money.— Skyler Windmiller (@__WINDY__) October 23, 2014
Has anyone figured out who the idiot is behind home plate that's been wearing all orange Marlins garb?— Maury Brown (@BizballMaury) October 23, 2014
But this isn't Leavy's first rodeo. Nor World Series game. Nor Super Bowl. Nor NBA game. Nor -- well, you get the idea.
He told the Star he's been to 27 Super Bowls, 200 NBA playoff games, 85 World Series games and "an unknown number" of Triple Crown horse races. He's also a longtime Marlins season ticket holder.
Leavy's loud Marlins gear got him in some hot water this week, too. He told the Star that Royals officials tried to entice him to either move from his conspicuous seat or don a Kansas City shirt. He declined and told the paper that “the owner of the Royals was extremely upset that I was there.”
Leavy has had previous brushes with Internet notoriety. During the 2012 World Series, he was spotted in TV broadcasts at San Francisco's AT&T Park wearing bright orange Marlins gear in -- you guessed it -- a primo seat behind home plate. The Giants beat the Detroit Tigers that year.
Now he's headed back to San Francisco (via a pit-stop in Las Vegas, naturally) for the next three games of this year's World Series, a move he announced via Twitter.
Hi everybody. Leaving KC for Vegas for 1 day. Then San Fran for WS 2 3 4. I wanted to say THANK YOU so much for all the wonderful support— Marlins Man (@Marlins_Man) October 23, 2014
No word yet on whether he scored equally excellent seats for the games in San Francisco. But one's thing for sure: If Leavy does show up on TV, he won't be hard to spot in all that Marlins gear.
Meanwhile, his legend only continues to grow.
Going to be on plane with WITH NO WIFI for Like 3 hours. CNN interview when land around 530PM . Listen for fun!— Marlins Man (@Marlins_Man) October 23, 2014
You do you, Marlins Man. You do you.
For those that have been asking.. I love MLB. I love to do in person what others watch on tv. I like watching history in person. Goodnight— Marlins Man (@Marlins_Man) October 22, 2014