BBTF's Newsblog Discussion :: Yankees, MLB ban fan for life after throwing baseball at Red Sox’s Alex Verdugo

Baseball Primer Newsblog
— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Yankees, MLB ban fan for life after throwing baseball at Red Sox’s Alex Verdugo

The New York Yankees have banned the fan who threw a baseball and hit Red Sox left fielder Alex Verdugo from Yankee Stadium for life, a team spokesman said Sunday afternoon.

Major League Baseball has also banned the fan from its other 29 ballparks, the spokesman added.

“While the Yankees appreciate the spirit and passion of our fans in our various rivalries—especially with the Red Sox – reckless, disorderly and dangerous behavior that puts the safety of players, field staff or fellow fans in jeopardy will not be tolerated,” the Yankees said in a statement. “There is absolutely no place for it at Yankee Stadium. The safety of everyone at Yankee Stadium, including guests in the stands and players on the field, will always be the top priority for the Yankees organization every time we open our doors.”

The Yankees plan to meet with authorities later Sunday night to provide them with all information they have about the incident, the spokesman said.

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: July 18, 2021 at 05:24 PM | 22 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: yankees

Reader Comments and Retorts

Go to end of page

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

1. Jeff Francoeur's OPS Posted: July 18, 2021 at 07:04 PM (#6029526)

Someone who was at the game claimed it was an accident:

https://www.twitter.com/BrendanKutyNJ/status/1416789260254986241

2. Tom Nawrocki Posted: July 18, 2021 at 07:14 PM (#6029528)

The account says he didn't hit Verdugo with the throw on purpose, but he still threw the ball at him after the game had resumed, under heavy pressure from the Yankee Faithful. That's hardly what I'd call an accident, and even if it were, people who are so out of control they hit players with thrown objects during the course of the game have no business going to the ballpark.

3. The Duke Posted: July 18, 2021 at 08:11 PM (#6029535)

How does one enforce such a ban ?

4. Walt Davis Posted: July 18, 2021 at 08:23 PM (#6029537)

It's un-enforcable really. If he bought the ticket, the most you could really do is ban his credit card number from purchasing tix again. Beyond that, maybe for a few weeks security, ticket-takers, etc. would be on the lookout for the guy and might grab him. I suppose the Yanks could run facial recognition on everybody who comes through the gate but that seems unlikely. A lifetime ban is pretty obviously not genuinely possible -- 10 years from now somebody's gonna recognize the guy and enforce the ban? Somebody in St Louis?

5. Never Give an Inge (Dave) Posted: July 18, 2021 at 08:27 PM (#6029538)

If you tell him he is banned from the premises and you will press charges for trespassing if he comes back, that might not ultimately be enforceable, but it’s probably a pretty effective threat.

6. You can keep your massive haul Posted: July 18, 2021 at 09:03 PM (#6029543)

Reminds me of my lifetime ban from taco bell in high school for not throwing out our food after lunch every day. Next week we went back and new people were working there so we were good to go.

7. Howie Menckel Posted: July 18, 2021 at 09:46 PM (#6029548)

it's such an absurd claim that I find it entertaining - "BANNED FOR LIFE !"

I'd claim to ban him for the rest of the year, and no promises about next year.

but I want to live in a world where this is the most egregious offense in MLB stadiums in all of 2021.

8. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: July 19, 2021 at 01:19 AM (#6029553)

@Bmangall20
My coworker told me he got banned from a bar when he lived in North Dakota back in 1973 and didn’t try going back to it for 30 years but he finally did and the moment he stepped in someone yelled “Get the hell out of here Dennis” And that’s probably my favorite story ever

9. John Northey Posted: July 19, 2021 at 01:23 AM (#6029554)

Real pain trying to find video of it - what I eventually found was the Red Sox yelling at the stands and fans in the stand waving arms in mocking fashion at him. A shame they don't seem to have video of it happening. One would think with the 1001 cameras that it would've been caught by someone. Hitting him with the ball on purpose would be hard, by accident even harder. Could happen, thus making any court case impossible to prove, but from what I see there my gut says 'guilty'. Luckily courts don't work on gut feel, only teams do.

10. Brian C Posted: July 19, 2021 at 03:17 AM (#6029555)

If you tell him he is banned from the premises and you will press charges for trespassing if he comes back, that might not ultimately be enforceable, but it’s probably a pretty effective threat.

This is exactly how we "banned" people from the movie theater I used to work at. I'm sure it varies by jurisdiction, but we'd have the cops write out a trespass warning and then if we saw them (the perpetrators, not the cops) again, we'd have grounds to press trespassing charges.

But obviously there's no way to monitor that aside from someone recognizing the offender if they came back. I'm sure the Yankees will tell security staff to be on the lookout for the next couple weeks but other ballparks? Completely empty threat.

11. Ron J Posted: July 19, 2021 at 07:39 AM (#6029557)

#10. Many years ago I worked security. Many places have a book of people who are banned. Of course it was hit and miss (mostly miss) whether anybody would actually check.

Stadium bans are pretty rigidly enforced in the UK, but then they have an honestly nightmarish level of surveillance.

12. GregD Posted: July 19, 2021 at 08:16 AM (#6029558)

Stadium bans are pretty rigidly enforced in the UK, but then they have an honestly nightmarish level of surveillance.

And a nightmarish level of stadium hooliganism.

13. Jose is Absurdly Correct but not Helpful Posted: July 19, 2021 at 08:45 AM (#6029560)

And a nightmarish level of stadium hooliganism.

Is that still true? I thought they had largely gotten rid of that (Euro final notwithstanding).

14. GregD Posted: July 19, 2021 at 09:37 AM (#6029562)

Is that still true? I thought they had largely gotten rid of that (Euro final notwithstanding).

via the "nightmarish level of surveillance RonJ referred to

15. Ron J Posted: July 19, 2021 at 10:28 AM (#6029564)

#14 Yeah. No easy solutions for the issue. They have surveillance at the train stations for away games and a combination of camera everywhere and facial recognition software and AI intended to identify people who seem intent on avoiding the cameras.

16. The Duke Posted: July 19, 2021 at 10:49 AM (#6029565)

I lived in the UK for a long time in the investment banking world and lived in London - proper. I had occasion to meet all kinds of folks and almost all of them were witty, smart, worldly and well-educated. Then I went to a soccer match.

Wow, I had PTSD for weeks. It was a shocking experience.

I had lunch with a british colleague and told him what I had seen and he laughed and said “ we all love our football but none of us go to the games anymore, we watch it on telly. If we want to go to a match we go to a rugby match”

I then told him all these nice things about the people I had met in the UK and asked how it could be that you could conquer the world like you did but you still had all these criminals and drunks that would show up en masse ?”

He looked at me and said “when we sailed to conquer all these countries who do you think rowed the boats?”

17. greenback needs a ride, not ammo

Posted: July 19, 2021 at 10:57 AM (#6029566)

I've been to one soccer game in the UK, at Millwall, and sat in the section where fans were supposed to be "passionate", and didn't see squat of hooliganism. Maybe Aston Villa just brings out the inner wussy in everyone.

18. Ron J Posted: July 19, 2021 at 11:47 AM (#6029568)

#16 Nick Hornby had a book about his life-long Arsenal fandom. Before making it big he taught English as a second language. Took a group to the stadium and things went very bad. He tried to explain that this wasn't how things normally went but his students evidently formed the opinion that he spent his weekends running for his life.

As I understand it, the primary result of all of the surveillance is to move (most of) the violence far away from the stadiums.

19. karlmagnus Posted: July 19, 2021 at 05:40 PM (#6029597)

In Britain, it's a social class thing. There is very little violence at country cricket. Of course, there are very few spectators at county cricket!

20. Walt Davis Posted: July 19, 2021 at 06:44 PM (#6029605)

There is very little violence at country cricket.

But #### gets real at the polo!

21. Never Give an Inge (Dave) Posted: July 19, 2021 at 07:25 PM (#6029607)

But obviously there's no way to monitor that aside from someone recognizing the offender if they came back. I'm sure the Yankees will tell security staff to be on the lookout for the next couple weeks but other ballparks? Completely empty threat.

It’s an incentive for him to be on his best behavior if he ever goes to the ballpark again. They won’t notice if he just shows up (assuming someone else buys the ticket), but they will notice and maybe press charges if he gets in trouble again.

22. AndrewJ Posted: July 19, 2021 at 09:11 PM (#6029616)

The late comedian George Miller (among David Letterman's closest friends) once started a fistfight at a Starbucks. The manager led him out the door and said, "...And don't EVER come back!!!" George replied in mock anguish, "Oh my God! Where am I going to find ANOTHER Starbucks?????"

You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.

<< Back to main

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Yankees, MLB ban fan for life after throwing baseball at Red Sox’s Alex Verdugo

Reader Comments and Retorts

BBTF Partner

Support BBTF

Hot Topics