April 16, 2003
BASEBALL HOOLIGANISM: If only they
BASEBALL HOOLIGANISM: If only they were as charming as that funny soccer streaker... on Tuesday, for the second time in as many seasons, a drunken dirtbag disguised as a Chicago White Sox fan jumped the barricade during a game against the Kansas City Royals and assaulted personnel on the field. During yesterday afternoon's game, this guy ran out onto the field and attacked first-base umpire Laz Diaz; thankfully Diaz, a former Marine, was able to subdue his attacker without much incident.
It's bad enough that this latest attack took place on the same field as last year's horrific assault on 55-year-old Royals coach Tom Gamboa by a duo of shirtless vermin who attacked him from behind. Apparently play had been stopped three other times during the game when fans ran onto the field. Clearly, things are out of control on the South Side of Chicago, and something's got to be done about it- there hasn't been this much anarchy in White Sox Nation since the days of Disco Demolition Night and Nickel Beer Night.
However, there once was a time (pre-Seles, pre-Kerrigan, and pre-Ligue, and pre-Fan Man) when running out onto the field had a more pure conotation to it. It's never been legal, but it has given us some truly great memories, in which no one got hurt. I hereby give you:
The Five Most Memorable Moments Involving Baseball Fans Running Out Onto the Field:
1. Fulton County Stadium, April 8, 1974. The moment Hank Aaron hit home run #715 to break Babe Ruth's record that had stood for a half-century, these two guys rushed the field in order to run the bases with Hank, pat him on the bank, and congratulate him. With Aaron having faced death threats in his runup to breaking the record, there was concern that the two fans mean to do him harm. But they turned out to be good guys, and are thus eternally embedded in one of the most iconic baseball images of all time.
(By the way, Hank Aaron sure looks different these days from how I remembered him).
2. Jack Murphy Stadium, April 9, 1974: Coincidentally, the day after Aaron's record-breaking home run, San Diego Padres owner and McDonalds founder Ray Kroc grabbed a public address microphone in the middle of the Padres' home opener in order to rip his team for poor play, and declared to his fans that "I suffer with you." But before Kroc could finish his rant, a lone streaker rushed across the field. The streaker part was later parodied by George Costanza on "Seinfeld."
3. Shea Stadium, October 25, 1986: In the fifth inning of Game 6 of the Mets-Red Sox World Series, Queens resident Mike Sergio floated into Shea in a giant "Let's Go Mets" parachute, landing in shallow center field. Sergio, who later got into movies and directed the 2001 gangster film "Under Hellgate Bridge" had the good foresight to parachute into what ended up being the greatest baseball game of the past 30 years.
4. Fenway Park, 2001 season. Aaron Devine, a BU undergraduate and friend of my sister, got a job as a vendor at Fenway during the 2001 season, and spent months planning something that had been his lifelong dream, yet was forbidden by the rules of his job: to set foot on the outfield grass at Fenway. Devine plotted for months, and even saw co-workers fired for doing exactly the same thing, until finally his dream came true near season's end- though not during a game (good to see someone's dream come true at Fenway for once). Devine later wrote a great memoir about the experience, which is unfortunately not online.
5. Edison International Field, August 29, 2001: As then-Yankees outfielder David Justice was returning to the dugout after being lifted for a pinch-runner in a game against the Angels, a process server acting on behalf of Justice's baby mama, Nicole Foster, ran onto the field and attempted to have Justice served with a $5 million palimony suit. The erstwhile Mr. Halle Berry just kept walking; the server was promptly arrested.
Posted by Stephen Silver at April 16, 2003 04:38 AM