‘I will cut up your family:’ California man pleads guilty to threatening Tampa Bay Rays players

Benjamin Patz now awaits sentencing

FILE - In this Oct. 6, 2020, file photo, the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees play in Game 2 of a baseball AL Division Series in an empty Petco Park in San Diego. Major League Baseball and all 30 of its teams are suing their insurance providers, citing billions of dollars in losses during the 2020 season played almost entirely without fans due to the coronavirus pandemic. The suit, filed in October in California Superior Court in Alameda County, was obtained Friday, Dec. 4, by The Associated Press. It says providers AIG, Factory Mutual and Interstate Fire and Casualty Company have refused to pay claims made by MLB despite the league's all-risk policy purchases. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) (Jae C. Hong, Copyright 2020, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

TAMPA, Fla. – A 24-year-old California man has pleaded guilty to threatening several Tampa Bay Rays baseball players.

Benjamin Tucker Patz, known as Parlay Patz, said he’s guilty of the charge of transmitting threats in interstate or foreign commerce, court records show.

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The FBI has been investigating Patz since 2019.

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According to the plea agreement, the Tampa Bay Rays lost a home game to the Chicago White Sox on July 19, 2019. On that day, four players, and a White Sox player, received threatening direct messages on the social media platform Instagram.

In messages to the Tampa Bay Ray players, Patz said he would violently kill them and their families. Some of the messages included statements such as “I will cut up your family,” “I will enter your home while you sleep and sever your neck open,” among other gruesome statements, court records show.

Investigators said Patz sent the messages knowing the players and their families would see them and took it as a true threat to injure multiple individuals.

Patz could face five years in federal prison. A sentencing date has not been set.


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