Fighting back

Baseball has to come down hard on violent 'fans'

Let's not pick on Chicago because, really, there are guys there who would just as soon rip out your molars with a rusty pair of pliers than let you talk smack about their town.

The fact is, fan violence is not limited to Chicago, and it's not some new phenomenon. It's not something that happens only to the Kansas City Royals or a stray umpire or coach or some backup catcher in the bullpen, either. And as anyone who has been to a ballpark certainly knows -- say, anytime in the last couple of centuries -- fans getting all riled up is not a problem limited to the field.

Fan violence has been a problem for a long, long time. They fought in the stands at the Coliseum, for goodness sakes. In the 13th century, soccer in Europe was one big go-at-it, battles royal between villages, often involving hundreds of so-called players and other hangers-on.

European soccer is littered with stories of hooliganism, of fans so worked up that they start hitting on each other or start pushing or start charging the field and scores of people end up dying.

It's been no prettier on this side of the Atlantic, either (though, if it's any consolation at all, we can be darn proud it's never been quite as deadly). Through the years, fans have jumped onto the field to run around naked, to yell, to throw stuff, to win a bet, to get on TV or just to be a pain in the neck by stopping play.

And, yes, once in a while, they get physical, too.

Back in 1940, in one particularly infamous episode, a fan bolted onto the field at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to pound on an umpire. In 1974, fans charged the field on 10-cent beer night during an Indians game in Cleveland and a huge melee broke out among fans, police and players.

In 1999, Houston's Bill Spiers was minding his own business in the outfield in Milwaukee when a fan blindsided him. The fan, in turn, was pummeled by Houston pitcher Mike Hampton. A year later, players turned the tables when Dodgers catcher Chad Kreuter went into the stands at Wrigley Field to mix it up with a few fans after his cap was stolen. A lot of Dodgers followed him.

Last season, remember, two shirtless and clueless fans jumped the wall at then-Comiskey Park to attack Kansas City first base coach Tom Gamboa. And then, Tuesday night, umpire Laz Diaz was attacked by a fan at Comiskey, now named U.S. Cellular Field.

Hey, did we point out this isn't limited to Chicago?

So now everybody starts to wonder. What's going on here? A full moon? A seismic shift in what has become socially acceptable? Too much beer? Mob rule? Brainlock? Sloppy security? Just some kind of creepy cloud of violence that happens to be hanging over Chicago?

And, everybody wants to know, what can be done about it? Metal detectors and patdowns? Big fences around playing fields? The Hell's Angels as security guards? Tea?

Nobody knows, really, what the cause of this whole mess is, and it's not all that important. You can't start serving chamomile instead of Coors, though cutting off beer sales after six or seven innings, especially at night, seems reasonable. You can't start profiling people at the turnstiles, waiting for the beeper to go off on every tattooed, trailer-trash-looking dude with a bad haircut.

But what baseball, and other sports, can do about fan violence is pretty simple. Heck, baseball's on the right track already. It can't be that hard.

Major League Baseball is looking into security at its parks, all over the country, and the White Sox promise to have more security both on the field and around the stadium. Ushers will check tickets a little closer, too, to make sure that people are sitting where they're supposed to be sitting, figuring that the dopes who charge the field aren't the same ones who pay big bucks for a box seat.

It's simple: You have to protect the field and those on it. More security, or more effective security. Either. Preferably both. You have to lay on those dopey fans that get on the field and lay on them hard. Prosecute them. Throw the book at them. Let them in a room for a couple of minutes with Hampton or David Wells.

Those who run these things have to show fans that enjoying the game doesn't mean endangering those on the field, or anyone off of it, either. It's bad enough when fans get loud and abusive. Really bad, sometimes.

But when fans cross that line -- when they jump the wall or charge the field or rush the court, no matter what their intent -- they're no longer fans.

And they no longer should be treated like them.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.

Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.

 

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