Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek shoves his mitt in Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez's face during a brawl, July 24, …
A New York Yankees fan from Connecticut who stabbed a Boston Red Sox fan in the neck during a 2010 bar fight was found guilty of first-degree assault on Tuesday.
John Mayor, a 46-year-old from New Haven, pleaded no contest to the charge. Mayor will be sentenced to 20 years in prison, but under terms of the plea agreement, he will serve 10 years with three years probation.
The brawl broke out at the U.S.S. Chowder Pot restaurant in Branford, Conn., on Oct. 2, 2010, during a season-ending Yankees-Red Sox series.
The victim, Monte Freire of Nashua, N.H., survived.
Mayor's lawyer, Howard Gemeiner, told the New Haven Register, "It's not a Yankees-Red Sox thing." But according to the initial police report, Freire and his friends—who had traveled to the area for a softball tournament—were "Red Sox fans in 'Yankee territory.'"
Branford is about 85 miles northeast of New York and 145 miles southwest of Boston. But I-91, which stretches from New Haven to Hartford and points north, is generally considered the Mason-Dixon line for the rivalry.
The day of the incident, the Yankees and Red Sox split a doubleheader at Fenway Park.
Mayor is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 17.
