FEARING FOR THEIR SAFETY
Angry fans react badly to controversial call on field leading to several arrests
Police to review raucous crowd behaviour during the seventh inning, when fans tossed beer cans and other debris onto the field, forcing a mother to flee with her baby,
A raucous seventh inning that led to beer cans and garbage raining down on the Rogers Centre field — an angry reaction to a controversial umpiring decision — will be examined by Toronto Police and Blue Jays security.
“We’ll sit down together and review everything, and look at potential opportunities to prevent things like this from happening in the future,” said the Jays’ vice-president of stadium operations and security, Mario Coutinho. “But unfortunately in a situation like that . . . a crowd’s emotions can take over.”
The protest followed a call that led to a go-ahead, 3-2 run for the Texas Rangers. Some of the crowd erupted in protest, tossing their drinks onto the field in a barrage that turned ugly, with several fans in the lower bowl seats being struck by the flying debris.
Television images showed a woman sheltering her child after a beer can landed dangerously near their seats.
Couthino said in original reports he received, there were no reports of serious injuries. According to police, the child and her mother were sprayed with liquid but not struck or injured. Several arrests were made, but there were no initial tallies of the number of fans who were either ejected from the stadium or arrested by police. Jays players began waving at fans to stop throwing debris field. “Keep the bottles in the stands. We got this. I appreciate the passion, but we got this,” centrefielder Kevin Pillar told the Star’s Brendan Kennedy after the game.
“I thought the fans were great other than the ones throwing beer cans,” Jays manager John Gibbons said. “I almost got hit by one.”
Toronto would bounce back in their half of the inning on a game winning three run homer by Jose Bautista, but the team’s security asked police for additional support to the initial on-site police representation of about 80 officers.
“Whenever you have a situation like that, people can get hurt, there’s a risk to people in the stands,” Coutinho said, “After the call, we asked for the additional support from police, we were thinking about the crowd and the possibility of the game being decided on that run.”
“We have lots of officers,” 52 Division Staff Sgt. Winston Bennett told the Star’s Alex Ballingall.
“We’re prepared for any eventuality and we have lots of officers on staff. A lot more than usual. We’re prepared.”
Coutinho said fans began to settle down after the initial reaction; the game was delayed about two minutes and 30 seconds for a review of the play, but grounds crews rushed all over the field to clear the debris while police poured out onto the field over an additional period of about 15 minutes as the crowd vented its anger.
The additional police presence was also focused in the right field bullpen where the Rangers relief pitchers were stationed during the game.
The Jays have experienced previous problems with fans in that area, most notably during Yankee reliever Mariano Rivera’s major league farewell tour two seasons ago.
The Yankee legend and certain hall of famer was taunted by fans, who also insulted his family and mother. Rivera asked Jays security to clear some of the fans from the area above the bullpen, where the insults were coming from.