The longest fan-on-baseball-field run ever?
If you were watching last night's Orioles game, you saw classic freak-outs from infielder Ty Wigginton and manager Juan Samuel as the team notched as many ejections as hits. You also probably wondered what in the world was going on during a two minute delay for a fan on the field. Here's a video uploaded onto YouTube, showing the fan taking a casual jog around the infield and past players as police and security, well, stand around watching. The guy actually gives up, jumps back into the stands, then apparently decides that if no one's going to try to arrest him, why not head back out? He's caught because he runs out of breath, not because anyone's close to nabbing him.
Yahoo!'s sports blog, Big League Stew, summed it up like this:
Honestly, I'm not sure if the cops just thought the kid would pass out by himself in the muggy harbor heat or if Thursdays at OPACY have been tabbed as a Hamsterdam of sorts for field trespassers, but that youngster had to set some sort of record for most time spent on the field without being tackled or even touched. Seriously, folks, don't exert yourselves.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said that it's the policy of the police department not to chase fans around the field and become "part of the spectacle." He said they wait until the fan, typically intoxicated, burns themselves out and then they are placed under arrest. "We don't Tase or beat them, or anything like that," he said. Indeed, in watching videos from other stadiums, it appears as though its typically stadium staff, not cops, that end up being part of those spectacular takedowns. So the bigger question is why no team staff members even enter the frame during last night's jog.
UPDATE: Police spokesman Donny Moses said the fan was a juvenile, so police can't release his information.
I hate to link to a Red Sox video, but I think this is how it's done:
This White Sox fan made it 16 seconds:
And of course, the Phillies fan who was Tasered.
Comments
If I were a court judge, I would give this clown the maximum punishment allowed by law. He was trying to provoke the police officers.
Posted by: Bill | July 23, 2010 11:27 AM
isn't there a BPD officer at Camden yards collecting over 100K in overtime money in addition to his 70K/yr salary? I think it should be his sole responsibility to chase every errant fan onfield or off at every game until they are apprehended by that individual officer with no assistance from other BPD officers.
Posted by: Tif | July 23, 2010 11:28 AM
Tif,
It should not matter who the officer is. This type of conduct from sports fans is WRONG! Put the blame on where it belongs, the stupid guy running through the field.
Posted by: Bill | July 23, 2010 11:48 AM
The O's need to hire this kid. He spent more time on the basepaths then the Birds did, plus he was the only one in Orange that made it to 3rd base.
If we did a "Comment of the Day" feature, you would be in the lead. -JF
Posted by: Sturmy | July 23, 2010 12:11 PM
I've been to over 1,000 games at Oriole Park. Field runners don't impress me. NAKED field runners impress me. Any idiot can run around the field with clothes on. It takes a special set of brass (or a whole lot of beer) to do it naked. Sorry, kid.
As for take-downs, I vote for the Cuban umpire who took out one of the idiot protestors running across the field during the Orioles/Cuba game. I believe there was a clothesline maneuver involved.
Posted by: behindbj | July 23, 2010 2:08 PM
Donny Moses says 'he's a juvenile' Pretty big juvie. Dumb Lug, apparently no one told him in BTown cops empty a full round point blank.
Posted by: ruth | July 23, 2010 6:29 PM
The fan was lazyier then the cops, if your gonna run on the field do something other then a 3 quarters trot oh and if your gonna touch the bases make sure to touch home. This kid has no future and is lucky Ty Wigginton wasn't still around, and what kind of loser gives up because an ump after the pathetic wigginton call and ejections. When I was watching the game (twins fan) I was hoping the fan was giving the ump a little non violent hell, but clearly this kid is not a real baseball fan.
Posted by: Mike | July 23, 2010 7:23 PM
I think the Patriots should sign that security guy to a contract
Posted by: Brad | July 24, 2010 6:47 PM
Mike,
It's not that the police are lazy, as the police spokesperson stated it is better to let the person run out of enegry and the police can make the arrest.
The police are trained to act in a professional manner. They know how these goofs operate.
Posted by: Bill | July 24, 2010 8:00 PM