The television cameras at baseball games often catch fans in semi-embarrassing moments, and good sports announcers are adept at poking gentle fun at spectators when the action on the diamond slows down.

But one Yankees fan who was filmed as he slept soundly through an April 13 game between the Yankees and the Red Sox has sued Major League Baseball, the Yankees and ESPN, saying the announcers’ commentary and the images of him asleep have damaged his reputation.

The suit, filed in State Supreme Court in the Bronx last week, seems to be a case of life imitating art, recalling the “Seinfeld” episode in which George Costanza’s reputation is destroyed and his girlfriend breaks up with him after a television camera catches him gluttonously digging into an ice cream sundae at the United States Open.

The fan, Andrew R. Rector, claimed in his suit that ESPN’s announcers, Dan Shulman and John Kruk, “unleashed an avalanche of disparaging words” about him, suggesting he was overweight and stupid. He also claims Major League Baseball was responsible for “vituperative utterances” about Mr. Rector on its website after the clip of him sleeping was posted the next day.