Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Have you seen some tweets about Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass, his pregnant wife and something about popcorn and his daughter? And you’re confused? We’re here to help.
If you’re looking for the Big Internet Debate of the day, you’ve come to it: According to Bass and others, there was an incident on a recent flight that involved his pregnant wife and he complained about it.
What exactly happened here? What’s the deal? Why are there so many tweets about it? That’s what we’re here for:
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OK, what's the deal here?
Bass tweeted over the weekend that his wife, Sydney Rae James — pregnant at 22 weeks — was traveling on a United Airlines flight with their two-year-old and five-year-old kids.
He claimed the flight attendant “made” his wife get on the floor of the aircraft and pick up “the popcorn mess” made by his daughter:
The flight attendant @united just made my 22 week pregnant wife traveling with a 5 year old and 2 year old get on her hands and knees to pick up the popcorn mess by my youngest daughter. Are you kidding me?!?! pic.twitter.com/vLYyLyJC54
— Anthony Bass (@AnthonyBass52) April 16, 2023
One last comment about today’s incident. United provided the popcorn, not my wife. https://t.co/CKVyzBuqNL
— Anthony Bass (@AnthonyBass52) April 16, 2023
Why is there fercious debate here?
Mostly, it brings up issues of entitlement: Why is it on the flight attendant or the clean-up crew that comes on the aircraft afterwards responsible for the mess?
The cleaning crew they hire!
— Anthony Bass (@AnthonyBass52) April 16, 2023
You do realize they don’t pull the planes out of circulation to detail a plane between flights. One group deplanes and the next group boards. So your families entitlement affects all the people boarding the plane after you get off.
— P wentink (@pwentink22) April 16, 2023
What happened next?
Bass tweeted that United is “taking care of matters with the flight attendant”:
Thank you everyone for the support. United Airlines is taking care of matters with the flight attendant internally.
— Anthony Bass (@AnthonyBass52) April 17, 2023
Jessie James Decker, who is Sydney Rae’s sister, complained on Instagram:
How is this literally a different story? pic.twitter.com/3icu2saNdd
— MadiSP (🪩 3/24, 7/15 & 7/29 Eras Tour! 🫶) (@MadiSP4321) April 17, 2023
Oh. Is he the reason why 7.11 ERA was trending on Twitter?
Uh, yeah.
Buddy has a 7.11 ERA this season and a career 3.91 ERA with a losing record and he’s running his mouth https://t.co/oNsUiziqbP pic.twitter.com/R2Qk9F1oxY
— Sill E. Gewce (@ParahoyitsAJ) April 17, 2023
Bass and his 7.11 ERA not cleaning up any messes out of the bullpen this season either amirite https://t.co/jsyILcF4Ed
— nugget chef (@jayhaykid) April 17, 2023
Mr. 7.11 ERA over here is most likely going to get this employee fired simply for not cleaning up his own kid’s mess.
What a loser. https://t.co/fovPTzFCD9
— Sarah ⚾️ (@sarahknowsball) April 17, 2023
