“Play Ball!” doesn’t include fan involvement.
The restrictions during the COVID seasons offered a dystopian view of what it looks/feels like to have sports without fans in the stands. While paper cutouts representing images of fans made it seem that there was at least some small semblance of stadium activity, the fake feature didn’t go unnoticed.
However, one good thing about that time in sports is that it removed the possibility of fan interference during the game.
That was then. Today, we are witnessing, once again, examples of times when fans and players collide in the heat of the moment or amid tense, high-level competition.
The most recent example of direct fan interference was during Tuesday’s Game 4 of the World Series. In the bottom of the first inning, a flyball hit by Yankees hitter Gleyber Torres seemed to be heading towards the first row of seating just above the roughly 8-foot tall fence down the right field line. Outfielder Mookie Betts responded by getting a significant jump on the ball. He leaped up toward the stands and squeezed the ball to make a clean catch.
That was when two fans, wearing full Yankee gear, combined their efforts to grab and steal the ball from Betts. One fan clenched Betts’s right arm, in effect, committing an assault on national TV, and the other opened up Betts’s glove to steal the ball away from him.
In the postseason, the umpire crew, including an additional right and left-field umpire, acted quickly to call for the out. Even if Betts had not come up with the ball, fan interference would have declared an out. The physical nature of this exchange appeared quite shocking when watching it in real time. It looked as though two schoolyard bullies were taking the smaller kids’ lunch and laughing all the while at their actions. Thankfully, Yankee stadium security acted quickly and removed the culprits from the game.
Yankee fans took solace in that they later rallied against an array of Dodgers mop-up relief pitchers and took the win in Game 4 with a final score of 11-4. Mookie Betts was later quoted saying, “It doesn’t matter. We lost. It’s irrelevant.” Coincidentally, earlier in the series, Gleyber Torres was awarded a double in Dodger Stadium when a fan reached over and grabbed a ball that was otherwise in play.
Moreover, Betts almost had a fan-assisted home run earlier in the postseason during Game 1 of the NLCS when his sharply hit line drive seemed to be heading for about the third row beyond the short left field wall. That time, Padres left-fielder Jurrickson Profar could weave and wrestle his way through the outstretched gloves of the fans and come up with what should be considered a great catch, given the conditions. In good sportsmanship, Profar playfully gave the fan a souvenir ball the next inning, and the fan responded by throwing the ball back onto the field.
As a fan of all sports, I feel fortunate to be in attendance whenever I’m at a live game. I have also been lucky to interact directly with players on occasion. But it would never occur to me to involve myself directly with a live play.
There are examples of a disaster for every interaction where the player offers the fan a ball or piece of gear in good faith, effectively indicating that “it’s cool” and what happened is to be forgotten. An example is the Malice at the Palace when Indiana Pacers players jumped right into the stands and engaged in a full-blown brawl with fans who allegedly threw the contents of a soft drink at Metta Sandiford (formerly Ron) Artest. Of course, baseball fans will never forget the case of Steve Bartmen, who innocently reached to catch a ball traveling sharply right towards him in a postseason play similar to the one involving Betts and Yankee fans.
Bartman didn’t realize he was directly obstructing Cubs outfielder Moises Alou’s glove. In that case, fan interference was not called in favor of the outfielder, and an out was not declared. It had a catastrophic outcome for the home team, too, as the Cubs lost that game. Bartman was forced to live in hiding, the direct target for ridicule and potential violence at the hands of enraged Cubs fans.
Simply put, none of these instances occurred during the COVID-19 seasons of 2020 and 2021. I don’t wish to go back and rob fans of the experience only attending a live game offers, but I believe measures must be taken before someone gets hurt by a player/fan interaction.
For example, extended netting or a front row reconstructed to sit a few more feet from the top of the fence might have prevented an incident like the one we witnessed Tuesday night. It would also have eliminated that gross feeling that comes when winning is tarnished.
Let’s face it: “Play ball!” doesn’t include fan involvement.
