Bad Bunny told me why he refused to honor an American veteran at that Yankee game. Now I fear what he'll do at the Super Bowl

Laurence Leavy flies all over the United States for baseball. You've probably seen him, as his alter-ego 'Marlins Man,' decked out in an orange jacket and visor, always sitting in the first two rows behind home plate.

Bad Bunny certainly has. Their paths have crossed more than once. And last week in New York, Leavy not only had the best view in the house for a Yankees playoff game, he also had a front row seat as the musician ignited fury across the nation by staying seated for 'God Bless America'. 

The Yankees always honor a military veteran at the end of the seventh inning and play the patriotic anthem. That night, a former US Marine who had served in Afghanistan was honored. 

Given that Leavy and Bad Bunny were sat so close to the field, the veteran was 'right in front of us' as he was introduced, Leavy recalls. But as Leavy stood and removed his visor, he looked at the musician and his two handlers. Something was off.

'I noticed he is sitting down and I take my hat off, I have my hand on my chest,' Leavy tells the Daily Mail. 'They're sitting down and I said "dude, you guys have got to get up. They'll give you a lot of c**p if you sit down." 

'And not Bad Bunny, the handler, said "he ain't getting up because he is p***ed off because Trump and him (Bunny), they are saying he shouldn't do the Super Bowl halftime show and that he should get a country singer who is an American. And we don't think that Trump realizes that Puerto Rico is the United States".

'I just said "ok." I heard someone say "didn't Trump go down to Puerto Rico after the hurricane and you guys went crazy because he was throwing toilet paper or paper towels?" They were like "whatever." They were definitely not Trump people.'

After taking some time to reflect on the encounter, Leavy suspects the seventh inning sit-down may not have been the only protest that evening.

'The game started and the seats are empty,' Leavy said. 'I am like "I wonder where the people are?" First inning comes, they are not there. Second, they are not there. It was around the third inning or so, they showed up. 

'I never asked him and I guess I should have - were you here on time and did you not come out so you didn't have to stand for the national anthem? Was that on purpose? Because everybody in the section is there for the first pitch. Everybody was like "what a waste of tickets" - nobody knew it was Bad Bunny.'

When the Puerto Rican singer finally arrived, he was asked by the television cameras if they could film him from close up.

'They always ask the celebrities: can we put you on camera and nine times out of 10 they say yes,' Levy explained. 'When they asked him, he said no. 

'When the camera left I said "what was that about?" He goes "yeah, you know, half the world hates me, half the world likes me."'

But Bad Bunny, real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasi, wasn't feeling too camera shy.

'There was nobody in the row in front of him. Eventually people showed up,' Leavy said. 'A really tall person was sitting in front of him. So he switched seats so people could see him better. He sat behind the short girl and made one of his handlers sit behind one of the tall guys. He was on his phone a lot.'

Overall, Leavy enjoyed his run-in with the star - and it wasn't there first meeting.

Leavy recalled meeting Bad Bunny's in LA's Dodger Stadium. 'I leaned over and said "hey, are you Bad Bunny?" and he said "yeah",' Leavy recalls. 'I said "do you remember me?" and he didn't. A few years ago he was in LA with me at a celebrity softball tournament, the day before the home run derby. 

But he admitted that time in Bad Bunny's company has made him fearful that he'll make a political statement at the Super Bowl. 

'He asked for a picture with me. I said 'who are you?' and he goes 'I'm Bad Bunny'. I'm like 'Bad Bunny, what are you, a porn star?'

'He said "I don't remember you but I remember being at that thing at someone asking me if I was a porn star." He was very, very nice. Not egotistical.'

However, Leavy, fears that the hit musician may inject politics into the Super Bowl when he performs. 

'I don't know if he will make it political but that is something I was concerned about,' Leavy said. 

'We are called the United States of America but in my lifetime, I don't feel United anymore, we're the divided states of America. We are no longer USA, we are DSA. We're definitely divided. Our country is bi-polar right now.' 

Leavy doesn't count himself in the number of Bad Bunny haters. He said the artist was 'a nice guy - he wasn't trying to be a jerk.'

'He just felt he didn't want to stand, which is his right. He doesn't have to stand, there's no law that says you have to,' Leavy said. 

'But it was brought to his attention, it wasn't like he overlooked it. It was "you need to stand up man, everybody is looking at you" and he goes "I'm not doing it". So that was not an accident.'