Baseball: Fan Interference Rules

After last night’s beautiful display of sportsmanship by a Toronto fan, why doesn’t MLB take drastic action once and for all regarding such things? I’m really sick and tired of years and years of fan interference. Pen them all in tight behind netting all around the stadium / park so no one can lean over a railing or throw anything on the field. No one catches foul balls or home runs anymore. It’s time the MLB get serious. If the fans cannot control themselves, then all should suffer due to the lowest common denominator. Tough noogies. Enough already.

What percent of baseball games have something like this happen?

And how important is ticket sales?

Well, because you’d kill the fan experience and lose money. It’s a rare occurrence. The cost of what you are proposing is really, really high.

This sort of thing used to be a much greater problem, and MLB took steps to reduce drunkenness and increase the expectation of good fan behavior. Things are much better than they used to be. Regrettably, if you get fifty thousand people together, some might be dicks, but actually there are fewer dicks than there once were.

If this continues in Toronto, what they will probably end up doing is not selling beer in cans anymore, and returning to cup-only sales, which I am totally in favour of anyway. A cold beer at the game is great but if you’re going to get really loaded maybe you should go to a sports bar. There is ALWAYS booze behind these incidents. Some people simply shouldn’t drink, and if you can’t identify who they are then at least prevent them from having booze-filled weapons.

What the Blue Jays in particular should do is

  1. Do everything in their power to find out who threw the can and have him arrested. I hope they made some effort last night.

  2. Make an even clearer announcement, before every game, that not only is fan interference and such subject to penalty, but adding that the fans represent Canada and Toronto, and their actions reflect upon their community and should not be a source of shame.

  3. Formally apologize to the Orioles and Hyun Soo Kim.

According to ESPN they did, but unfortunately the jackass was still coherent enough to realize that he needed to take off before he got caught:

As a Canadian and a Blue Jays fan I and thousands, if not millions, of other people are disgusted with the behaviour of that “fan”. Please don’t paint all of us with the same brush. I truly hope this jackass is found and named & shamed. I also agree with what RickJay wrote.

With all due respect to Toronto fans, from what I have read, The can thrower has not been identified as a Toronto fan.

A disturbed fan, yes.

Ah, the “No true Toronto fan” argument.

:smiley:

Do you think Chicago Cubs fans will behave themselves this year?

FWIW when the Blue Jays were in Cleveland this year, Indians fans could not stop raving about how awesome the Jays fans were that came down for the series.

I agree that that this in no way is indicative of Toronto baseball or its fans.

http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/newsreleases/36107

Toronto police have issued a warrant along with a picture. They gave him a chance to turn himself in before releasing it but it seems he didn’t.

CBC News article. A police spokesman mentioned about half a dozen charges that might apply, not just assault, but things like reckless endangerment and mischief. Meanwhile both the Toronto Sun and a Baltimore restaurant owner have each offered a $1000 reward for information leading to his arrest, which typifies the outrage this has caused on both sides of the border.

WRT the OP: it seems that the Rogers Centre is reviewing its alcohol policies and it’s actually surprising that they were still serving beer in cans. But as already said, extreme measures that involve excessively isolating the crowds from the game would be counterproductive. At some point you may as well just stay home and get a better view on TV.

Toronto fans are genuinely outraged. As they should be. This simply doesn’t reflect well on us as a baseball town.

I heard someone once threw a sex toy on the ice at a hockey game.

An octopus is not (usually) a sex toy, your specific experiences notwithstanding.

:smiley:

I was at the Red Sox game against Toronto last Friday night. Lots of Blue Jays fans, apologizing left and right as they moved to and from their seats in Fenway. It was eerie.

But you repeat yourself. :smiley:

Perhaps unsurprisingly there is now significant doubt that the picture is of the right person.

Looks to me like they got the wrong guy.
If you look at the video and pictures surfacing. It’s more likely the guy beside him with the white hat on backwards. It appears that he turns sideways and throws a hook shot with his right hand while the guy in the hoodie puts his left hand to his face. It would be interesting if the “accused” is left-handed or not.
You can tell in the aftermath, that the guy in the white hat and his buddies know what happened by the looks on their faces.
As far as having a beer in his hand afterwards, you can buy 2 at a time which is what most drinkers do to avoid the long line-ups, leaving their seats, etc…

Actually, I think all Canadian baseball fans are saddened and embarrassed by this.
In recent years, there has been a ton of criticism of Toronto fans and their knowledge and respect for the game and this just perpetuates that belief.