White Sox honor Ketel Marte with heartfelt scoreboard message during his first at-bat after disgraceful fan incident

Ketel Marte and the Arizona Diamondbacks are wrapping up a series with the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday afternoon. During Marte's first at-bat of the game, the White Sox shared a heartwarming message on the video board.

Foul Territory shared the photo from the game. The White Sox wanted to make sure that Marte knew he had support after the disgraceful fan incident on Tuesday.

The caption from Foul Territory read:

"The White Sox displayed a message on their scoreboard in support of Ketel Marte during his first at-bat of the day. ❤️ "

The message on the video board read:

"Baseball is family. The White Sox community supports Ketel Marte"

Marte became emotional on the field during the seventh inning of the game on Tuesday night after a fan commented on his late mother. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo heard the remark and immediately had the fan ejected.

Marte's mother, Elpidia Valde, died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic in 2017. The disgraceful comment made him emotional during his at-bat. Not only did the White Sox honor Marte with this message, but MLB has banned the fan from attending games.

Ketel Marte's manager and teammate give thoughts on fan behavior

Ketel Marte and the Diamondbacks won on Tuesday night, but the fan behavior dominated the conversation. Torey Luvollo spoke to reporters after the game and shared his thoughts on the matter.

“I just reacted as a dad would when I went out to change pitchers,” Lovullo said. “I could see he was sobbing. It hurt. (I told him), ‘I love you and I’m with you and we’re all together and you’re not alone. No matter what happens, no matter what was said or what you heard, that guy is an idiot. It shouldn’t have an impact on you.’”

Marte's teammate, Geraldo Perdomo, had stern words for the fan when asked about it by reporters.

“That can’t happen,” Perdomo said. “Everybody knows how Ketel is. He’s fun. He plays the game hard. I feel bad for him. I feel mad about it. I hope MLB can do something with that guy. I don’t know who it was, but they’ve got to do something. We can’t continue to do that (expletive) here in MLB. He should be banned, for sure.”

This is not the first instance of poor fan behavior during the 2025 MLB season, but the league continues to do what it can to prevent future issues.

Edited by Krutik Jain