Matthew Fortese, 25, a lifelong Yankees fan from Hagerstown, Md., was heckled by two Oriole fans for nearly an hour at the Baltimore ballpark Wednesday before one allegedly threw beer in his face and punched him in the head, sending him over a railing.
He was revived by an off-duty state trooper, an old friend who, coincidentally, was also at the game.
Nathan Steelman, the off-duty trooper, was sitting a few sections away from where Fortese fell. He ran over to help Fortese, who was not breathing and bleeding badly from his head, according to CNN.
"I think instinct kind of kicked in," Steelman told CNN. He would later realize that the man he assisted was a childhood friend. "I didn't know it was Matt at the time."
Fortese — who friends say was on a date and supposed to start a new job Monday —suffered severe head trauma and a skull fracture and was in serious condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
Two men — Greg Fleishman, 22, and Michael Bell, 21 — were charged in the attack and released on $50,000 bond Friday night.
