Sheffield at Fenway Park

[Mel]

Anyone catch it the other night when Gary Sheffield got popped in the mouth by a fan when fielding a ball at the Fenway fence?

Another fan threw a beer on him. Reminded me of Groundskeeper Willie... the Fenway Park Employee who actually got into a brawl with the Yankees bullpen in the 03 playoffs. :rolleyes:

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050415/SPT0501/504150320/1013/SPT

BOSTON - Gary Sheffield kept his cool just as another confrontation between Fenway Park fans and the New York Yankees was heating up.

Sheffield was fielding Jason Varitek's two-run triple along the low right-field fence in the eighth inning of Boston's 8-5 victory Thursday night when a fan swung a short uppercut in his direction, appearing to graze the side of the slugger's face with his right arm.

"Something hit me in the mouth. It felt like a hand," Sheffield said. "I thought my lip was busted."

After Sheffield picked up the ball, he shoved the fan before throwing the ball back to the infield as two runs scored. Another fan's beer also sprayed in Sheffield's direction.

"I tried to get his hand out of my face so I could continue on with the play," he said. "To get punched in the mouth, you don't expect that in a baseball game."

Sheffield then whirled around with a cocked fist, shouting in the face of the first man - but restrained himself and did not throw a punch. A security official quickly jumped over the three-foot wall to separate the two.

"It could have been worse if I didn't hold my composure," Sheffield said. "I almost snapped, but I thought about the consequences."

The fan was ejected from the ballpark but not arrested.

"I guess there's always one idiot in the stands," New York captain Derek Jeter said.

Fenway hasn't been a friendly place for Boston's chief rival. The fans boo Alex Rodriguez, razz Jason Giambi about steroids and generally make life unpleasant for the Yankees.

"People here yell at you and throw things at you, all kinds of things all game long," center fielder Bernie Williams said. "But what that guy did was different, totally unexpected. It was dangerous and something should be done about it."

During the 2003 AL playoffs, two Yankees players got into a brawl with a Red Sox groundskeeper in New York's bullpen.

Relief pitcher Jeff Nelson and outfielder Karim Garcia were charged with assault but agreed to a deal last October that called for the charges against them to be dropped in six months.

"We have two great teams and two great baseball cities and a lot of emotion," Boston manager Terry Francona said.

http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/images/2005/04/15/DgYqiJ5L.jpg

[The Insider]

I thought Sheffield was going to pull a Ron Artest, but thankfully, he thought the better of it. It is becoming a scary sight with fans trying to involve themselves with the players. Between Artest, Sheffield, the Italian soccer game and those two clowns who jumped the Royals 1st base coach, security is going to have to become a lot heavier for sports. Like Joe Torre said afterwards, it always comes down to a bunch of guys who ruin it for the everyone else and in this situation the guy swipes at Shef's head and was lucky Shef didn't punch the guy out, and now you might see major league baseball thinking up away to take the fans away from the field.

[Mel]

Shef definitely kept his cool thank God, or he'd probably get the pants sued off him by some drunken A-hole for emotional trauma. At fenway and many parks there is not enough distance between the fans and the OF's. That's something that might be good to address when things like this happen. As for fans throwing crap (yes it happens to the Sox at Yankee stadium too), or 2 freaks jumping on to the field to attack a first base coach... well there's just not much you can do about it, except put a fence around the fans.

But do we really want to watch baseball played in a cage?

Security could be better, and to Fenway's credit - they got a man to the scene pretty fast. They can't be everywhere.

This guy from the other night... they could easily make an example out of him. Technically speaking he assaulted Sheffield! But no charges were filed, he was just asked to leave. So what he did was no big deal, that's the message sent by Fenway Park and the Boston authorities.

I know Shef is receiving a lot of praise for not jumping into the stands. He's a classy veteran. But it just gets under my skin. It seems to be a recurring theme when the Yanks visit Fenway. And nothing ever seems to be done about it.

People think it's over-reacting, and it got blown out of proportion because of the notorious rivalry between the teams. But I think ball parks should consider some separation between the fans and the walls that the players have to play. Especially at Fenway.

[The Insider]

As much as they would deny it, you can bet there were a ton of media outlets were praying that something would blow up from this. I mean, you think about, the so called "Greatest Rivalry" in sports would be blown to epic proportions if the fans and players got involved. They'd probably be running the highlight packages everytime these teams would meet and probably for months in advance. It is an interesting thought that the only thing this rivalry needs is a fan/player brawl before is explodes and garners massive ratings/advertising revenue for the games. The only problem being, Shef would've been heavily suspended and that would've been a huge blow to the Yanks.

[Mel]

Base ball is a laid back sport for the most part... slow paced summer laziness.

I sure as hell don't want to see trends toward soccer type riots and fan violence.

I really think Boston should make an example of this idiot.... and I stress that he is a sole idiot (along w/ the guy who threw the beer)... 99% of fans in any park wouldn't dream of swiping at a player.

Make his life miserable so that future drunks think twice about doing stupid things. That's all I'm asking for. I understand this type of thing goes on at a lot of parks. Not just Fenway. (although being a native bostonian with much of my family and roots there... I will go out on a limb and say that drunkeness and rowdy behavior is particularly bad at Fenway.... really bad. I've witnessed it first hand - and it's worse than Yankee stadium.)

I agree the media eats it up... they WANT such incidents so they may sensationalize them. Grab those headlines.

The funny thing is that the Red Sox are just as pissed as the Yankees over such fan behavior, as big rivlaries as they are. They (on both teams) are all good guys. It's the fans who cause this crap. :mad:

[lapniappe]

maybe they should move the fans 3 rows back or something so they can't really affect the game. How many times has a fan (see: Chicago Cubs) affected - seriously affected the outcome of the game by reaching over and grabbing a ball?

several times a fan has assulted a player or a coach (or both).

Either that, or have a higher fence, but maybe that's bad for the game (and players)

[Mel]

maybe they should move the fans 3 rows back or something so they can't really affect the game. How many times has a fan (see: Chicago Cubs) affected - seriously affected the outcome of the game by reaching over and grabbing a ball?

several times a fan has assulted a player or a coach (or both).

Either that, or have a higher fence, but maybe that's bad for the game (and players)

To be honest Liv... if this trend keeps up... I wouldn't be surprised to see protective gating along the front rows both to keep out foul balls and to keep fans off the field. Kind of like the behind goal netting put up in NHL arenas (to protect the fans)

It would be compeletey crazy... but they have netting behind the plate...alll they need to do is expand it down the baselines.

That would suck BIG TIME, but that's what happens when drunken A-holes ruin sporting events for the other 99.9% of us. :mad:

[The Insider]

I agree with you Matt, you have 99.9% of fans who, go to the game, enjoy the atmosphere and watch the game without incident. Then however you always get a drunk guy or some troublemaker who either try to be funny by running onto the field or interfering with the game, leading game officials to consider changing the way they structure the stands, and in doing so, taking the fan further away from the game. What needs to be done is if a fan causes any kind of trouble at a game, they need to be banned from ever going again, this way it'll make people think twice about their actions and avoid any kind of trouble. It is a really hard situation to be in to have to turn a customer away from the game, but if you run a store and someone comes in and messes up your displays and harrasses other customers, action must be taken, am I right?

[Mel]

I agree with you Matt, you have 99.9% of fans who, go to the game, enjoy the atmosphere and watch the game without incident. Then however you always get a drunk guy or some troublemaker who either try to be funny by running onto the field or interfering with the game, leading game officials to consider changing the way they structure the stands, and in doing so, taking the fan further away from the game. What needs to be done is if a fan causes any kind of trouble at a game, they need to be banned from ever going again, this way it'll make people think twice about their actions and avoid any kind of trouble. It is a really hard situation to be in to have to turn a customer away from the game, but if you run a store and someone comes in and messes up your displays and harrasses other customers, action must be taken, am I right?

Yup that's really my main problem with the Sheff incident. They should make an example of this guy... but absolutely nothing is being done. I think he received a temp ban from Fenway park. ooooooohhhhh. Way to come down hard on the guy. They should throw his ass in jail. Fenway park should prosecute this man to the full extent of the law.

Make people think twice about interfering with the game. That goes for all parks.

It all comes back to why I love hockey. One time a fan jumped on the ice during a stoppage and ran up to the sabres bench. So what happens? Rob Ray beats the snot out of him :laughing: :nod: That's how you handle these idiots.

[Mel]

My hats off to Fenway Park. Turns out the moron in right field was a season ticket holder... and he has had his season tickets revoked for the 2005 season! The fan who threw the beer was not a season ticket holder but has been barred from purchasing tickets for all of 2005.

Great to see Fenway take a stance on this (applause).

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=682456

Meanwhile Sheff is to meet with MLB brass to see if he will be disciplined for shoving the fan.

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050418&content_id=1020266&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/images/2005/04/18/XWj4Et43.jpg

PS - My cousin was at the game and in that section. she said nobody could see what set off the altercation... so the crowd was chanting "roid rage" :rolleyes: :laughing:

[Mel]

Sheffeild will face no punishment for the Fenway altercation

RALEIGH, N.C. (Reuters) - New York Yankees outfielder Gary Sheffield will not be punished for a confrontation with a Boston Red Sox fan on April 14, Major League Baseball (MLB) said.
Sheffield reacted after a Red Sox fan obstructed him from making a play during the match at Fenway Park.

A review determined "a fan in the right field seats reached over the barrier separating the players from the stands and struck Sheffield on the head as he was attempting to field a ball in play," Major League Baseball said in a statement.

"Sheffield in response swung his arms in an effort to extricate himself from the situation and to avoid further abuse, then completed the play and returned to confront the fan," the statement continued, adding "no further altercation occurred."

Commissioner Bud Selig said baseball did not condone any interaction between fans and players.

He added: "I am pleased that Gary Sheffield showed restraint in not overreacting to the improper and clearly aggressive action of the fan in question."

The Red Sox have revoked the fan's seven season tickets and banned another fan, who doused beer on Sheffield, from purchasing tickets this season.

Sheffield said he was "very pleased" with the decision.

"It just proves that I was right," he said.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=sportsNews&storyID=8253389