Man’s marriage proposal during baseball game fails

Every now and then, you hear about the guy who proposes marriage to his girlfriend at a baseball game while being filmed on the ‘Jumbotron’ and she gleefully accepts.

That’s why I found it very amusing to read that a woman rejected her boyfriend’s wedding proposal at last night’s Nationals and Astros game in Houston. According to the article by the Houston Chronicle,

With the couple highlighted on the big screen, the mood soured after the man took a knee to offer an engagement ring. Wearing a brick-red replica Astros jersey, the woman appeared to angrily dump a bag of popcorn on the man before rushing up the stairs amid a chorus of boos.

Frankly, I support this woman’s rejection. Some people think it’s romantic for a man to make a public proposal to his girlfriend. I think it’s more of a way to force a woman to accept, when she may not want to.

How many times have you seen a public marriage proposal and seen the girl accept, but wondered, does she really want to marry this guy or is she just saying yes to spare the embarrassment to him and herself if she were to say ‘no’ publicly?

I’m sure this woman appreciated the marriage proposal gesture, but not the fact that her boyfriend decided to propose while being viewed by the tens of thousands of people that were in attendance at the game. If he had asked her privately over a dinner in a nice restaurant, I’m sure she would have said she wasn’t ready for marriage, but still wanted to be with him in their committed relationship. But by asking her in such an overtly public manner, a polite refusal for marriage wouldn’t work and she had no choice but to leave.

What was she going to do? Politely explain that she didn’t want to get married yet still wanted to be with him and decline the ring in front of everyone, all the while being heckled for not accepting for the rest of the game?

Act like she wanted to get married to the guy even though she didn’t just so she wouldn’t get heckled or embrass her boyfriend, only to tell him at home after the game, “Hey, take the ring back. I don’t really want to get married right now. I just said ‘yes’ to save you from being embarrassed at the game.”?

In my opinion, she was justifiable in her actions. Marriage is a big step. There’s no need to exacerbate the pressure of making the decision on a marriage proposal by asking a woman if she wants to get married while being shown on a sports venue ‘Jumbotron’ during a game.

Plus, there are better and less cliched ways to ask the woman that you want to spend the rest of your life with to marry you.